


PARASITIC (Among Us)

by Woeful_Wordsmith



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Alien Crewmate(s) (Among Us), Aliens, Aliens Made Them Do It, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Among Us (Video Game) Setting, Angst, Angst and Humor, Angst and Tragedy, Attempted Murder, Crewmate Turned Impostor (Among Us), Everybody Dies, Fluff and Angst, Heavy Angst, Murder, Murder Mystery, Other, Outer Space, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, The Skeld (Among Us)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 46,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27130840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woeful_Wordsmith/pseuds/Woeful_Wordsmith
Summary: If a crewmate is actively pursuing you and has not communicated their reason for doing so, that is not your crewmate.If you see a crewmate actively performing sabotage on facility operation, that is not your crewmate.If you see a crewmate pop out of a vent, that is not your crewmate.If your crewmate doesn't do any of their tasks ever, they are not your crewmate.
Comments: 32
Kudos: 51





	1. One: Have a Nice Month at Work, Honey!

We've all heard the horror stories about the SKELD. Every six months, they send ten aerospace mechanics to the station to upkeep the maintenance of our satellite. But only two return every single time. They come back, traumatized and scared, too afraid to talk about the horrors they witnessed aboard the spacecraft. Not one of them has cracked, and some years, nobody comes home. _Not one_.

The Aeronautics Committee of Unknown World Exploration has yet to release a statement as to why they haven't suspended the program, but we all know why. This planet would be unsalvageable if we didn't conduct our research there. MIRA HQ has been terminated for years in the stratosphere and POLUS under the crust of the planet was a devastating blow just last week as scientists had come back from their expedition the same way folks have from the SKELD. Many times have security teams gone in and scoured the place, head to toe, to try and find out what happened to have caused these disappearances. Only a few were preserved by the remaining crewmates for evidence in their investigations and also to allow their families a proper send-off; the rest are left unaccounted for. All the Committee has left is the satellite, and I'm one of the unlucky ones to get sent there. 

Twelve are being sent this time instead of ten in hopes that the extra set of hands will allow us to finish our tasks quicker so we can jump ship as soon as it's all said and done. I still can't believe that I nor any of these other crazy people accepted the request. All of us have to have a death wish if we're sitting in this capsule, strapped to our seats to withstand the g-force of cutting through the atmosphere, and willing to work within what's now known as the Bermuda Triangle of space. What's worse is that some of us had to bring our children with us. Friends and family wouldn't want to be the ones to tell our kids that their parents are dead. We may as well take them along with us. A lot of firsts with our group here. A buzzer sounds.

**_"In-ship gravity stabilized, feel free to roam the shuttle until the docking process has begun."_**

We all look at each other, unbuckling our many seatbelts and jumping out of our seats to get some feeling back in our legs. My daughter, Mundy, tries untangling the belts on her own, getting frustrated and giving up. I help her out a bit and let her finish the rest. She slides out of my lap and lands on her knees, a fellow spaceman helping her up. Their suit is black, kneeling on their knee to make sure Mundy is okay. "Did you hurt yourself, Red dude?"

"Mundy, baby," I call as I stand up. She hugs my leg. The spaceman stands up and pops off their helmet with a plant growing out of the top, taking a deep breath. She has glasses and black curly hair that goes to the top of her shoulders.

"Hey, the name's Cole," she greets, holding out a hand. I flip off my helmet and let it hang behind me like a hood as I shake her hand. 

"Morbid. This one here is named Mundy."

"Hello!" Mundy rings, her microphone speaker crackling. Another child in a green suit approaches us, flipping his visor up and smiling at Mundy. "Hello!"

"Hi!" He chimes back. "I'm Triple-A, who are you?"

"Mundy!"

Two other boys run up to us, one blue and the other purple, both with their visors up. The blue one speaks first. "I'm Scout, he's Jimothy. Wanna go look out the window with us?"

Mundy looks up at me, and I laugh, patting her head. "Go ahead." She lets go of my leg and the quartet all run to the other side of our small vessel, plastering their hands and helmets to the thick glass. I adjust my military helmet and let the straps hang loose as they usually irritate the underside of my head. Triple A's mother walks over to me, Jimothy's mom joining as well. "Hey, I'm Morbid."

"I'm Battery," Triple-A's mom says, adjusting her cap over her dark brown shoulder-length hair.

"And I'm Ten... Not age-wise though, that's my name." The Purple astronaut with a long, fluffy brown ponytail and goggles on points to herself with her thumb. She then points over to the man in the blue suit and a cowboy hat; blondish-brown short hair and a hard look. "That's Scout's dad, Con."

"Aw, your little ones are so cute!" Cole swoons, putting a hand to her cheek. A dog in a suit of his own runs over to us, dropping onto his back for belly rubs. Cole gets down on her knees again and starts to pet the dog. "You're also a little cutie, hello!"

"Guys, look, a puppy!" Jimothy points and all of the kids gather around the canine, giving him all kinds of attention. The dog's owner stands nearby in a brown suit with-oddly enough- a toilet paper roll on top of her brown curly hair pulled into a ponytail talking to another 'naut in a cyan suit with cat ears on the helmet. The dog's owner and her buddy join our circle.

"I see you've met Dukie," she starts, adjusting the paper on her head. "I'm Mark Skid."

Scout giggles. "Skid Mark, Skid Mark."

" _Scout,_ " Con grumbles. 

Triple-A pushes his visor back up when it starts to fall. "It sounds like Poop Stain. Is that why you have toilet paper on your head?"

"Her suit is brown, it must be," Mundy adds. 

"Cut it out, all of you," I sigh.

"I didn't say anything!" Jimothy argues. He turns to his friends without missing a beat. "Wait, the dog's name is dookie!"

"Okay, buster-" Ten pulls her son up by his arm. "Time out."

"Mundy, you, too," I mention. She whines, standing up and walking over to my side. "I'm sorry, Mark."

"No no, don't worry," she laughs. "They can call me Po if they want. Oh, this is Meep. We worked together back home."

"Heyo," Meep raises a hand, tucking back a lock of brown hair with their other. The buzzer from before rings again.

**_"The docking process will commence soon. Please return to your seats and engage Entry One buckling for safety."_**

We disperse back to our seats. I pick up Mundy and sit her down in my lap, letting her press the metal clasps together before I tighten the strap. Minor turbulence shakes our astral skiff. Dukie isn't a fan and makes sure to let the whole group know it by howling at the top of his lungs. Po attempts to calm her pet down, but he keeps going the more she tries. Mundy taps her hands on top of mine as I hold her around the waist to prepare for any more jostling we may or may not do. The lights go out for a split second as the vessel tremors while settling. They come back on, and the airlock hisses as it pressurizes the passage.

**_"Docking successful. Please enjoy your stay aboard the SKELD. Your luggage will be received in the sublevel lift. Current tasks have been uploaded to your PDAs."_**

 _"_ Mama, let's go," Mundy excitedly vocalizes. Everyone lines up at the door to be let into the station. We're all silent except for the chatter of the children as all of them have probably been told that we're going on a space adventure to protect them from the truth. I place a hand on Mundy's shoulder to keep her from running off as soon as the shutter lifts. It's guaranteed that only a small fraction of us are going to be able to leave here, but we wouldn't be leaving in the same condition we arrived in. The question is who is going to be lucky enough to stay alive.

The doors open up and we all walk through to an open room with a table in the center. Standing in the cafeteria, I feel as though I've just signed my death certificate. The shutter door clanks and lifts again and reveals a thick window that allows us to watch our vessel disembarking for home. All of us beep a few times, meaning that our PDAs have been updated. We bring out our tablets and all take a gander. A note in big red letters says that we should all review this together as a team. I scroll down and look at the first numbered paragraph. Meep begins to read.

_"Each crewmate has been given an admin card, and there will be weekly rotations of who acts as the liaison between the SKELD and the Committee. There will be no liaison for the first week and liaisons will be chosen at random."_

Ten sighs, taking on the next note. _"Weekly tasks are to be updated to your PDAs. The SKELD is decades old and requires constant upkeep to be able to process the data we receive from higher clearance expeditions that are light-years away. Failure to do these tasks means you cannot return home on time."_

Po reads the following excerpt. " _It's recommended that you stay within groups to lessen your chances of getting attacked while aboard the SKELD. Though this is not mandatory, wandering the facility alone is not an action that should be taken under the guise of it being in your best interest. If a crewmate is actively pursuing you and has not communicated their reason for doing so, that is not your crewmate."_

Cole takes the fourth. _"Under no circumstances are there to be any tasks to do with the ventilation system. There have been reports of creatures living there, and they prefer to be left alone. If you see a crewmate pop out of a vent, that is not your crewmate."_ She shudders. "Creepy."

"How would that even work?" I ask. "We've been told that none of the survivors have spoken since their landing. What do they mean by 'reports?'"

"I don't know," Lime answers. She adjusts her cowboy and tips it at Con who tips his own that matches back. She pops her black-painted lips and talks in a British accent. "Oh, I'm Minty by the way! Here, I'll keep reading. _'Each crew member is allowed access to the emergency meeting call button once a week by swiping their admin card before being allowed access to the button in the middle of the main cafeteria table. This is to ensure that there will be no abuse of the intercom nor any spamming that would waste resources. A meeting cannot be called during a crisis.'"_

I eye the center of the table, a glass case over the button. I clear my throat. _"A crisis is mentioned as any of the facility's main functions being disrupted or sabotaged in any way. Common crises that have been noted from previous endeavors as follows: (1) O 2 depletion, (2) Reactor meltdown, (3) Communications not calibrated, and/ or (4) Facility lights turning off. If you see a crewmate actively performing sabotage on facility operations, that is not your crewmate."_

"I'm not a fan of when it says that," Orange interjects. She has horns growing out of her head that displaces her dyed cherry red hair, pointing upwards and curling in the middle. "I'm Nakii. What's up, dudes?"

"Maybe we should complete introductions before we start reading the guidelines?" Po suggests.

"Sounds fair. Hello, I'm Crow," Yellow greets, pushing their paper hat further onto their head. They have somewhat of a mullet that has speckles of blonde and black.

"I'm Uni, it would be nice to meet you if we weren't given these circumstances," White nervously rambles a little, adjusting the headband tied around her forehead under her frosty-blue bangs, the sides of her head shaved and black.

Pink doesn't answer for a while, staring out of the window by the trash chute- watching the skiff head back home- with a wedge of cheese on top of her light brown hair. Con yells her color a few times, and she finally comes to around the fifth time. "Oh, I'm Runky."

"Was that everyone?" Nakii asks. 

"I'm Mundy!" Mundy yells out, tapping her helmet to take it off like the rest of the adults.

"Oh, oh, I'm Scout." Con holds Scout on his hip, helping him commence the unlock for his headwear.

"Jimothy!"

The Green space kid struggles as he won't let his mom help him. He almost falls over when he pulls his head out of the fishbowl. "And my name's AAA. My mommy calls me Triple-A."

"This is Dukie," Po introduces her golden retriever. 

"Might as well... This little guy is named Sam," Nakii hesitantly speaks about her robot companion. He beeps and looks around the room. "I've grown attached. He can help out with tasks."

"Great, I think that's everyone," Uni takes hold of our meeting. _"CCTVs and the Log Tracker in Administration are useful tools to help keep a general knowledge of where your crewmates are. However, these applications do not have a recording function and only work in real-time, so do not rely on this to help solve any mysteries that may arise while boarded."_

Con takes a stab. "This is so ominous, I don't like it. _'Lights Out may be a determined time amongst the crew, but it still must be reported to home base in association to Greenwich Mean Time. Lights Out is completely peer enforced, so we recommend this suggestion be taken under the pretense of it being in your best interest.'"_

"I've got the last one, these look like the suggestions of the previous crew. I heard that the Committee doesn't check these, so this should be interesting." Minty slides her finger up her tablet screen. _"There's something here that doesn't want you to leave. It will do everything in Its power to hunt you down and kill you. It will spare your children, It doesn't want them. It is Among Us as your crewmates are Imposters. If your crewmate doesn't do any of their tasks ever, they are not your crewmate."_

"We're in Hell," Cole whispers. "So... What are we going to do? Would you guys like to try out the buddy system?"

I hand my tablet to Mundy for her to hold. "Before we do, let's pool our resources. I know that the Committee let certain people bring aboard certain things hoping it'll help us this time around. For instance, I have this." I pull a revolver out from my side pouch. Battery, Crow, and Minty pull out one, too. We all put them away again. "Mmm, so we have four. Does anyone else have something like this?"

Ten raises their hand. "I'm here as a medic, which means I'll spend most of my time in the Medical Bay. A few of my tasks are mainly in O2 and Reactor, but I'm a doctor by trade. That's to say, I can't really defend myself in tight pinches."

"The rest of us are technicians with minor specialties, right?" Uni looks for confirmation. We all nod. "Let's go over tasks and see who should pair up with who based on where they need to go."

"But you heard what Minty read, some of us are imposters. Who's to say one person isn't going to get extremely unlucky and end up with two of them?" Nakii crosses her arms. "I'm going alone. You guys can do your thing."

Nakii, Runky, Po, Meep, Ten, Uni, Crow, and Con all begin to walk off without another thought. That fell apart a lot quicker than I expected it to. I shudder, Cole putting a hand on my shoulder. "Wanna partner up? Battery and Minty are going off together."

"Yeah, sure," I answer, basing my trust solely off of our one interaction in the skiff. I strain as I pick up Mundy and hold her on my hip. "What's our first task, Mundy?"

She looks down at the tablet. "El-ec-tri-- Elec-tri-cal?"

Cole checks her tasks. "I have a few down there, too. Uh... The map says it is... That way."

She points down the hall many of the crew went down. We start to walk, our boots making our footsteps sound heavy and hollow. It echoes as we step, the metal on the ground of the connecter hall thumps with each footfall. I turn my head as we pass by Admin, a few people inside taking care of business. Storage comes up, and Crow kneels on one knee to fill up a jerry can for the engines. Mundy slips slightly from my grip, and I readjust her legs wrapped around my waist. Cole enters first, stepping carefully over running wires and extensions cords to get to the back of the room. I set Mundy down, taking the tablet from her and reading over my instructions. 

"It says here the wires fray often from high heat and ends up disconnecting, so we have to reconnect them."

"You, too?" Cole stashes her PDA away and takes out a flashlight. "Let's see what kind of wire spaghetti we have in here, then." She opens up the hatch and shines her flashlight inside, reaching her gloved hand into the shaft. Something sparks, and she flinches, drawing her hand back out. 

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"Yeah, just wasn't expecting that. I have some tweezers that'll speed this up."

"Here, let me turn off the breaker for a moment."

Cole stops me. "It's fine, look." She sticks her hand in again, pulling the colored wires together and using the tweezers to twist the metal cords to connect. Cole checks her PDA. "There's more of these, huh?"

I look at the map. "Yep. Before we do that, though. We should probably explore a little and get a feel for the place so we don't have to rely on our map."

"Sounds--" The crisis alarm blares, and echoing beep that's grating to the ears. Cole looks up from her tablet. "Oxygen's being depleted."

"Sabotage? Already?" I hand my device to Mundy and pick her up. "C'mon, let's go fix it!"

"Right, uhm... Two keypads need to be interacted with to reactivate airflow, one in Admin, and one in O2. Let's go to Admin, that one is closest."

_**"Five minutes until total Oxygen depletion."**_

Haste in our movements, Cole and I jog out of Electrical. Con and Scout whizz past us as they race to get to one of the nearest keypads. We follow after them, Meep and Nakii running in from the Cafeteria. Con gets to the pad first, using his PDA to find the password for it. "Where's the code, _where's the code?_ "

Meep furiously taps around their device. "I got it, I got it! It's nine-seven-four-three-six." He presses enter and a green light flicks on, but the alarm doesn't stop. Meep taps around their tablet some more. "No one's at the other keypad."

"Let's go!" Scout yells, running off to go fix the issue. 

"Scout, get back here!" Con goes to catch his son.

_**"Three minutes until total Oxygen depletion."**_

I follow, Mundy held tightly in my arms. Scout and Con stand in the hall in front of a door that blocks the way to the cafeteria. Con bangs on the door with his fists, growling at the obstacle that's in front of us. I huff. "Where's the rest of the team?"

"Great question that I don't know the answer to!" Nakii shouts as she runs in the other direction through Storage hanging a left to try and get to Oxygen another way. We stay put, unsure of what's happening at the current moment, and deciding that staying as a group as large as this one proves beneficial. The doors unlock.

_**"One minute until total Oxygen Depletion."**_

"Move it, lazybones!" Scout yells again, Con prepared to keep up with his child this time. We advance as a pack and go through Weapons, crowding around the entrance of Oxygen, anxiously awaiting for Crow to finish inputting the code. They double-check their numbers, hitting confirm and looking up at the ceiling. 

_**"Oxygen reactivated; Systems circulating."**_

We sigh relief. Runky comes around the corner from Weapons, panting. "Oh, you guys fixed it."

"Where were _you,_ Pink?" Cole says, arms akimbo. 

"I got locked out of the Cafeteria near Medbay with the Purple bros."

"That's only eleven of us then... Where's Orange?" Minty inquires, a finger to her chin.

I look around to confirm Nakii nowhere in sight. "She ran in the other direction through Storage to get around the doors locking. Shouldn't she have made it here before us?"

"I'm right here! Don't worry, I'm fine," she pants as she hangs back at the end of the corridor. 

"Oxygen getting sabotaged so early and the doors locking to prevent us from getting to where we needed to be?" Po ponders. "Do you think... There's really an Imposter here on this ship?"

"What would they even want?" Meep rubs their arm. "We just got here, we haven't uncovered anything significant. There's nothing of value that we have for them to start tormenting us on our first day."

"Maybe we should get to bed, guys," Battery introduces a new idea, her son clinging to her with his head laid on her shoulder. "We've been traveling for hours on the skiff and having that much gravity being exerted on your body tuckers you out, especially for the kids. It'll be a new day in a few hours, assuming that we're all going to use a schedule similar to that of what we used at home?"

"That seems like our best course of action. Too much excitement for one day, let's hit the hay," Con agrees. "But where would we sleep?"

"In the barracks in the sublevel of the ship. We'd have to get there through the floor in the Cafeteria," Crow informs as they look at their PDA. "Even though Lights Out are optional, let's make it enforced just for tonight. Just so then we don't freak each other out."

Uni sighs. "Fine by me. This whole place gives me chills, so knowing that we're all holding each other accountable would put me a bit at ease. I'll go get Purple and her son. Anyone want to come with?"

"I'll go," I volunteer. "You guys can wait in the Cafeteria."

The group agrees, shuffling to the Cafeteria. Uni and I walk across hesitantly and turn into the brightly lit room. Ten sits on a stool and faces a terminal, her eyes trained on the test tubes into through her clear goggles. She presses a few buttons and the terminal beeps, the test tubes getting transported elsewhere for testing. She rests her goggles on her head and looks up at us. "You fixed the Oxygen, great!"

"Yeah, just barely," Uni remarks. "We've decided to head in for the night, just to calm our nerves."

"Oh, alright. Jimothy," she calls. "C'mon, buster."

Jimothy kneels near the vent shaft. Ten stands and rushes over to him to pull him away. "I told you not to go near the vent, Jimothy!"

"I know, but I found this," he defends himself with a piece of paper in hand. Ten takes it from him and reads it.

_It_ _breeds here."_ She shakes her head. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know... Let's show it to everyone else." Mundy gets restless, and I put her down so she can walk with her new purple friend. Uni leads us back to the group, everyone having an expectant look about them. "Look what we found."

Ten hands the paper over to Crow. _"It breeds here..._ Where did you find this?"

"It was next to the vent," Jimothy says.

Crow nods, holding onto their paper hat. "I've heard a rumor that I think might explain this. Hope you guys like bedtime stories."


	2. Two: Well, This is a Bit Awkward Now, Isn't It?

"Gather 'round my younglings," Crow beckons the kids onto their bunk bed as we all take off our suits for the night and hang them on the Replenish Rack. We all wear a regular muscle shirt and black shorts- both of which fit relatively snugly- to protect from direct contact with the temperature regulator that runs along our backs and to keep from our skin snagging on anything within the suit. 

I lift Triple-A and Scout to sit with Crow on their bed inside of the small pod on the wall. All of our beds are like this and have a curtain for privacy reasons, of course. Twelve of us adults in total means two rows and six columns of beds. Each pod has a window that looks out into the great beyond, looking out at our planet and sun hurling through space. There's not much space down here as it's just a narrow hallway with the pods all along one wall and the Replenish Rack and personal lockers on the other. Walking further down the hall introduces the bathrooms and some quantum computers we don't have the clearance to mess around with.

"Many-a-time has rumors of an alien race been tossed around the walls of each research facility, but not one has been as significant as the SKELD. That paper that you found, Jimothy, might be evidence that these aliens are real," Crow begins, a spooky and mystical aura about their voice. 

"What do these aliens do?" Nakii sets Sam into her locker and shuts it.

"No one knows for sure. My supervisor had access to one of the previous SKELD crewmates, and he said that they actually talked to him before never speaking another word again. All he could utter was 'parasites' before he went back into a vegetable-like state. He died a few weeks later after that interaction."

I cross my arms. "I think I remember that... The Echo-Nineteen mission, right?"

"Yup," Crow nods and continues. "Medical did the autopsy. When they cracked open his body-" Crow leans in toward the kids, "all they could see were eggs. Hundreds of thousands of them. Millions upon millions of these tiny capsules that filled up every crevice inside of him. They infested his insides like dead maggots, countless clumps of them found all over his body but none of them had a trace of life found within. These little beads contained three or four smaller creatures inside that were supposed to incubate and feed off of the host as they grew, sucking out all of the life from him in a slow and painful death. And they were _everywhere_. Under his skin, attached to his skeleton, embedded in the outermost layer of his organ tissue... _Everywhere._

"It all made the grossest sound when they were fishing around within his body to salvage anything, too; it was a mix between constant cracking from having to break the calcification and crust but an oozing moist noise when they got to the soft bits. They say that his skull rattled when they moved his body in the slightest. When they worked up to checking his brain, there was a monster inside that had eaten over half of his brain to fit inside along with it. A mutilated carcass of what was described as the rancid remains of what nightmares and pure unbridled terror is made out of."

"Cool," Jimothy says in wonder and amazement.

"No, that's gross and scary," Scout argues.

I shudder, the entire room feeling uneasy and sick. Crow persists. "The scariest thing? He got it while doing a ventilation task. That's why we're told to not go in there. It was still moving, _feasting_ on what little remains it could to keep up its strength. The astronaut was completely coherent the entire time he spent on the ship as he was the liaison for the Committee and the crew."

"That... That can't be real," Battery gasps. 

"Of course, it's only a rumor," Crow discloses. "A mere tale he made up to get a rise out of us. But I'll never forget the look on my supervisor's face as he supposedly reminisced about what he saw inside that corpse. How he could feel the inside of his stomach shift as he laid witness to the buildup of worms and grubs shifting around within the skin. Like this!" Crow grabs Jimothy and starts to tickle him, and he starts to cry, screaming that he doesn't want to have aliens inside of him. "I thought you said they were cool."

"No! No! No! No bugs inside of me, I don't want them on the inside!" He screeches, thrashing around to get away from them. 

"Crow, that's enough!" Ten grabs her son and holds him as he sobs into her chest. "You had _no_ right to scare him like that."

"C'mon, Ten," Crow leans back on their bed. "You've known me for a year now, you know I'm not one to get squeamish."

"Just don't intimidate the kids, they already have enough to put up with," Ten shushes her son and sways from side to console him. I help the rest of the children down, holding Mundy in my arms as she doesn't want to be put down. "Let's get to bed."

"Papa, I don't want to go sleep," Scout tugs on Con's arm. 

Con sighs and picks up his kid as well. "Thanks, Yellow."

"Hey, it'll harden him up for later!"

We all groan and mill about to get to our pods. I set Mundy on top first before I climb in myself, shutting our curtain and adjusting myself to fit along-side my daughter. She rolls onto her side and lays on top of my arm. "Mama, how long are we going on our space adventure?"

"I don't know, baby."

"I hope we go home soon," she whispers. "My friend invited me to her birthday party last week."

"Maybe. We'll see," I avoid giving her a definite answer.

"I'm going to set an alarm for ten-hundred hours, okay?" Uni declares, messing around with her PDA before clicking it into it's charging dock in her bunk pod. "Goodnight guys."

"G'night," I say, everyone giving their own departing words. I wrap my arm around Mundy and pull her close to me. The sudden silence in the barracks has made for squeezing tension, wringing my body dry of the already minimal hope that we'd be stupidly lucky and be the first normal crew in a long while. My mind wanders back to Crow's story, the sight of thousands of maggots writhing around on top of each other, the feel of them burrowing inside me... I feel an unscratchable itch all over my body. I try to push it away, thinking about what the play is for tomorrow. Would we try out the buddy system again? It was only effective today since we were already on edge, what with the foreboding guidelines we were given.

Mundy turns to look out of the window at our home, and I do, too. An entire landmass is cast over with a cloud of grey, bright reds blazing through the cracks as a fire ravages the surface. Ocean water is going we don't know where; receding shore-lines and beached animals is constant talk around the office during my lunch hour. It's all falling apart down there. That's why we're up here, to help find another planet for us to rebuild on. Is it worth it in the end? The last missions bore no fruits for their labor, and I'm afraid it'll be the same for us. The sun glares at us from beyond the horizon of the moon, taunting us as she keeps her secrets of the SKELD from us.

We synched our clocks to the time zone back home, and it's o-two-hundred hours there according to my PDA charging above my head. A few of the other crewmates take a while for settling in, restless from the mental strain we're putting on ourselves. Mundy trembles, drawing her legs in and forming a fetal position. I tap a few buttons overhead and raise the temperature for our pod by a few degrees to keep her warm. I close my eyes.

The ship drones and whirrs with all of the machinery we're surrounded by. It's dark down here compared to the upper level which isn't too bright itself. It smells of oxidized metals and the air almost feels electric. Hairs all over my body stand on end as I feel a presence outside of our curtain. My eyes crack open, and I can't feel my arm as Mundy has been laying on it all this time. The clock reads o-nine-fifty-five. I reach out and carefully slide the curtain over, Crow standing at their locker with their suit on. They turn around, loading their revolver. "Yo, dude."

"What are you doing?" I ask in a low volume, shaking Mundy awake.

"I'm gonna go do tasks on my own while no one is around." They put their gun away in their satchel. "You should get to the bathroom, though. It's kinda small in there so it's gonna get crowded."

"Oh, thanks."

"Yup, good luck on your own." Crow takes their PDA and runs off into the lift. I slide out of the pod and land on my feet, the metal grate under me quietly clanking with my impact. Helping Mundy down, I tell her to go ahead and wash up in the bathroom while I prepare our suits. I use the ledge of the pod under me to lift myself high enough to grab my PDA from its dock, but I fall down immediately as a hand grabs my leg. I yell out and kick furiously until the hand lets go.

Everyone jumps out of their pods and stand at the ready to face whatever the threat is. Runky pops her head out of her curtain, and I scoff, frustrated. "Why would you _ever_ do that?"

"I'm sorry, that was all instinct." She tries to excuse herself, and I stand up, anger laced on my face. 

"Guess we're all up now."

Uni's PDA goes off moments later, and I walk over to my locker and pick up my items for hygiene and a new set of underclothing for me and Mundy. I run over to slip in before anyone, and I help Mundy get in and out of the shower capsule, brush her teeth, and get her clothes on. All dirty clothing must be logged under the crewmate's name and set into the hamper chute to keep clothing separated while going to the laundry. We exit, Con and Scout going in after us. Everyone checks out their PDAs to see if the Committee has sent any updates for us as well as doing some light unpacking into their lockers. Heading over to the Replenish Rack, Mundy finds an MRE with plasticware taped to it in her helmet. I do, too, glancing at the next few suits over and seeing one in each.

"It says--"

"I wanna read it," Mundy stops me and looks at her package. "Tur-tury- turyki!"

"Close, teriyaki," I correct. "We're having chicken for breakfast it looks." I hold her package and watch her put on her crimson suit, hanging the helmet from her back. I have her hold them next while I put on mine. "Ope gotta go get our stuff."

I run over to our pod first to retrieve the tablet and then over to my locker to get my hat and my gun. Checking the bullets, all look to be resting in the barrel just fine. "C'mon, Mundy."

She grabs my hand as we walk over to the lift. Con and Scout join us, Minty just barely making it before we push the button. Scout shows his MRE to Mundy and she shows him hers, the two switching meals. Scout shows his dad. "Papa, look, turkey."

"Teriyaki, Scout," Con smiles at his son. 

"I got roast beef," Minty shows off her package. 

I take the pack that Mundy got from Scout. "This one says pork and rice."

We arrive at the top and step away from the center table before it sinks below the floor. Mundy tries ripping her package open. It didn't come with a heating pad, and you can't exactly nuke it in the microwave... Do we even have a microwave? Where did the MRE come from? It must've come from the Replenish Rack since it repairs our suits. I guess it gives out meals, too. I pull Mundy to one of the other tables to sit and eat out of her packet with the spoon. Our liftmates join us and take a seat on the different benches around the table.

"What tasks do you two have to get done?" Minty asks.

"I have to recalibrate Navigation and empty the trash chute at the end of the week. Oh, I also have some wires to fix around here," Con stirs his cold breakfast.

"I have a few wires to fix as well, some things in Oxygen, but the one that'll take the longest would be Reactor maintenance," Minty tells. "Red? Sorry, I'm quite bad with names."

"Don't worry, you're fine It's Morbid. I have a lot to do in Electrical this week. I only have two tasks not related to wires, and that would be revitalizing Shields and uploading data from the Cafeteria to Admin." The rest of our team comes up the lift, already digging in and eating out of their packs. Some reside at tables, but a few have already scarfed down the entire thing and put their trash in the chute. They wander off to go do work by themselves. "We should get going."

"Be careful out there," Minty warns. 

"Yeah, you, too. See you guys later." Mundy and I walk to the trash chute, Jimothy running up to Mundy and showing her a book he brought along with him.

"It's a book where you have a bunch of small pictures inside of one big, big picture and you try to find the small pictures in the big picture," Jimothy explains or at least tries to. The two of them are mentally on the same wavelength. "Wanna help me find the small pictures?"

"Jimothy, come here and finish your food," Ten orders. 

"But Mommy--"

"Now."

"Sorry, Mundy." His shoulders drop, and he sadly walks back to the table and climbs onto the bench. 

"Mama, can Jimothy and I play?" Mundy jumps and pulls down my hand to make sure I'm paying attention to her.

"Maybe later, baby, okay? Let's go complete some tasks first and then we can go check in with Ten and Jimothy." She smiles and starts to tug my arm, trying to get to our tasks as fast as possible so she can go off with Jimothy. I retract my arm and bring out my PDA. "Hold on, I have to get this data real quick while everyone else is here." 

Next to the trash chute is a computer terminal that tracks our rations and meal habits. I tap around aimlessly on it until I get to a data screen and plug in my PDA to extract it. I gasp, looking at the expected loading time to be a day. It decreases rather quickly, dwindling down by the hour until it gets to minutes. People start finishing up and leaving the Cafeteria, causing me to start swaying back and forth in anticipation for an automated chime that would release me. I stay planted, eventually turning my body and looking out into the area rather than facing the wall to keep my guard up.

Nakii and Sam come back into the Cafeteria, walking up to an electrical panel at the other end of the room. Nakii goes in and fixes it while her robot watches her back. My PDA beeps, and I pull it from the computer. I look over at my crewmate and back to my PDA, nervously reaching out. "Hey, what tasks are you doing?" 

She turns and points to herself. "Me?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"Well, I'm going to Communications in a second to fix more wires. What are _you_ doing?"

"About to upload data in Admin... Need a buddy?" I ask.

She shrugs. "You sure you aren't the one who needs it?"

"I have a gun," I entice.

"I'm not giving you that ease of access, buddy, not gonna happen."

She starts to walk away, but I stammer to get her attention again. "We don't have to walk side by side, just close enough to be a witness in case of anything bad happening. C'mon, I'm just trying to get stuff done."

"Then get it done. Good luck with finding a trustworthy partner, though." She declines my offer and looks slightly apologetic about her decision, looking as though she'd have accepted if the concept of an Imposter wasn't introduced. Mundy taps my thigh, and I grab her hand to take us to Admin. Runky peels out of Admin and dashes down into Storage as a pink blur, the metal halls ringing with her footfalls. I grip Mundy's hand as we go in after she's gone. Nothing is out of the ordinary, so she must've been very eager to get her job out of the way. Mundy sits on the ground next to my feet as I plug my device into another terminal and stand around waiting for the data to upload.

Faint talking emanates from somewhere in the room or maybe off in the hall. There's a possibility that I'm just imagining it to trick my brain into thinking that someone is nearby at all times. I can't imagine there being many conversations to be had unless it's between a parent and child or like the one I just had with Nakii. There's no trust to be had with any of us, even if we knew each other prior to coming aboard the SKELD. Lucky me, I don't know anyone too well. Minty looks vaguely familiar, though. Can't remember where. I look around and spot the Admin panel. I saunter over, turning my attention down to the platform that rises to my hip. Small icons of spacemen light up on the display. This must be the real-time map mentioned in the guidelines. Everyone is pretty spaced out, most people being in electrical right now, which is three. Twelve icons in total as our PDAs are what's being tracked.

A soft _bang_ comes from the vent. I stay standing at the panel, glaring at the shadowy corner of the room. My PDA beeps, and I turn away to go disconnect it. My task list brings itself up unprompted and highlights some words in green, indicating that that chore is complete. Mundy reaches for the PDA to hold it, and I give it to her. I really don't feel like running the risk of getting electrocuted right now, so off to Shields. 

"Mundy, come hither," I say in an exaggerated British accent. She jogs to keep up with me as we cut through Storage. Uni tries to come from the hall to the left, and we awkwardly shuffle from side to side as to not get close together. I end up standing still and letting her pass before going down the hall. I turn my head to check Comms, Nakii sitting at the desk with headphones on. I could rush her right now if I wanted to.

Why did I think that?

We turn into Shields and walk along the railing, turning into the tiny alcove and standing at the kiosk. This is a bit confusing, and there were no instructions on my PDA for this. Footsteps approach and I turn my attention away from my duties. Battery walks in with Triple-A in one arm and Scout holding her other hand. "Hey, Morbid."

"Yo, what's going on?"

"Nothing bad, I'm just collecting the kids. Ten offered to watch them in Medbay since Jimothy was a bit sad that no one comes by to see him. Would you like me to take Mundy, too?" 

Mundy vibrates with joy. "I wanna go, Mama, can I go Mama?"

I push my hat up a little and rub my forehead through my bangs. The guidelines said that our children would be safe, so that would be to say that Battery wouldn't do anything to hurt the kids if she was an Imposter. "Be nice, Mundy. Listen to Ten if she tells you to do something."

"Yes, Mama," she runs up to Scout. "Bye, Mama!"

"Bye, baby," I wave to them as they depart. I tap my pockets a few times, opening my satchel and seeing nothing but my gun. Oh, Mundy never gave me the PDA back. I run after them. "Mundy, Mundy!"

Their posse slows down inside of Storage, and I kneel on one knee down to my daughter with my hand out. She gives me the tablet back. "Sorry, Mama."

"It's okay, I forgot, too. Have fun." I wave to her again as they move through the halls. I slowly make my way back, searching my PDA for a clue as to what to do with Shields. I _could_ just press random buttons, but I also could accidentally set the entire ship ablaze on accident by doing that. Someone sprints past me, panting, and I look up to see Crow chasing after them. I don't want to get involved with whatever that is. I keep going about my day and groan as I keep coming up with dead ends. I stand at the entrance of Shields as I continue to type in various keywords to find out what I'm supposed to do. A hinge creaks open in front of me, and I look up in a curious manner. I almost drop my PDA.

Cole stares at me with a surprised face as she claws her way out of the vent, her lower body stuck in the opening. She laughs. "Hey, my Tonka _dump-truck_ of an ass is stuck, could you perhaps pull me up?"


	3. Three: The Looney Bin. Population: One

"Morbid, please, I can't get out as easily as I thought could," Cole pleads, hoisting herself up as much as she can. I stand in the hallway and look around, no one to be seen. Cole grunts and lowers herself back into the vent and twists her hips, jumping out onto her side. She kicks the vent hatch with her foot, laying on her stomach and kicking her feet behind her, holding her head up with her hand. "Nevermind, it's okay, I got it."

I stand gawking. "Why... Why were you..."

"In the vent? Pshh, doing a vent task, _obviously_ ," she tries to play it off. I blink at her, paralyzed. She stands up. "Oh, right, those don't exist anymore."

_If you see your crewmate pop out of the vent, that is not your crewmate._

I turn, walking away but then transition to sprinting. I breathe heavily, swinging my arms as I get into full stride. Cole's footsteps thud behind me, far faster than mine. My feet stutter, but I keep going, racing to the Cafeteria to call for an emergency meeting. I can practically feel Cole's breath on my neck. She lunges at me, tackling me and taking us both down to the ground. My PDA slides across the floor, and I struggle with her in our bulky spacesuits. I kick her off, trying to set myself up for a dash off the ground, but she latches onto my ankle to weigh me down. She huffs and uses me to pull herself up. I pick up my military cap, hitting her over the head with it to earn myself enough time to take out my gun. She uses her oxygen tank on the back of her suit to smack me head-on, looming over me and panting in exertion. She drops the pack, picks up my gun, and points it at me. I groan as I stare up at her.

"Shit, I didn't know that we were having a track meet."

"You're an Imposter," I cough, reaching up to feel my nose.

"And? What of it?" She shrugs. "I mean... Aren't we all?"

"No, you maniac!" I wince. Where is everyone else? "We did a task together, there's no way you're actually an Imposter! Why would _we_ be Imposters?"

She tilts her head, slightly confused. "It didn't choose you?"

"What's it?"

"It. It didn't choose you?" She prods in a delirious way. I heave, furrowing my brows. She's so casual about the fact that I've found her out. I stare at her and open my mouth slightly, belting out a beacon in hopes someone will come. Cole drops the gun at my sudden action, and I yell louder, slowly opting for a scream as I transfer to my hands and knees. I stop for a brief second to take a deep breath and get to my feet, screaming as I start sprinting again. Cole curses and yells out in exertion. I do a double-take when I check behind me, needing to verify that I was seeing things correctly. Her oxygen tank blazes through the air, and I can see a glimpse of Cole catching up before the canister collides with my face with a great big _ping!_ that's followed by the tripping my feet did and ever so elegant skidding of my cheek against the metal floor.

Am I going to die? What an Imposter actually does is going to be finally known, but I won't be around to tell the tale. What's going to happen to Mundy? I feel movement in my body, right under my skin. I can't move, meaning I can't scratch it. It writhes, rolling around and sprouting inside of me. My skin lifts with each movement. It hurts. 

I slowly open my eyes, groaning as I close them again as the blindingly bright light strains my pupils. Footsteps eagerly step over to me, and I try again on opening my eyes. Ten casts a shadow over me, a finger to her chin as she observes me from above. We lock eyes and she tilts her head slightly. "Morbid?"

A grunt escapes me as I stir, sitting up on my side. Ten helps me. She forces my eyelid open and shines a flashlight in it. I flinch, but she does the other one as well with no hesitation. My brain is being crushed inside my skull. Ten hands me a small cup with pills and a larger cup full of water. "What... what do these do?"

"They're for the headache I can imagine you have as well as to quell bleeding," she says, speaking quietly. "Also, sorry for the light thing, I just had to make sure your pupils were still responsive." 

I down the pills without another thought. "Don't worry about it."

"Can you stand up? I want to do a scan of you to make sure you're alright." She grabs my arms and does most of the lifting to help me stand. We inch over to the platform, and my bare feet smack against the glass. I look down, seeing myself without my spacesuit on. The floor lights up and a green grid goes through my legs and rises up to my stomach, stopping at the top of my head before disappearing. My body glows green for a split second while the grid comes back down to the floor. Ten sits on her stool and looks at her PDA for the results. "You have minor brain swelling for right now, but that'll go down in a while with the medicine I gave you. The way that Cole described it, you had a nasty fall. You got lucky that it's as minor as this. Your nose could've been broken, but you luckily only have light bruising on your cheek and a dried-up bloody schnoz instead."

"So I'm not dead?" I ask somewhat as a rhetorical question.

"No, silly! All you did was trip and hit your head, you're fine," she giggles.

"Mama!" Mundy runs into Medbay, stepping onto the platform and hugging my leg. "Mama, Mama, your cheek is purple."

"It is, isn't it?" I pick her up and sit down with her on my bed, spotting Cole in the doorway. She stands with a smile and crossed arms.

"Welcome back, Cole," Ten notices her. 

She walks into the room and stops at the next bed over. "Great to see you're doing okay, Morbid."

I crack a reluctant smile, keeping Mundy close to me. My face feels sore. "Yeah, thanks."

"Do you remember what happened?" Ten asks.

"A little... I remember falling. Maybe you could fill in the blanks?" I say, vaguely remembering Cole being involved.

"I was looking for a partner, and I saw you in Shields. I tried to join you, but I guess I startled you since I forgot to announce myself. You started to yell, lost your footing, and made a collision with the floor. I didn't want to leave you alone, so I stayed with you until someone else came upon us and went to get Ten to help me carry you here." A flip switches. It's all there in front of me. Cole came out of an airvent and pointed my gun at me. She's lying so hard, that I think I might cause a brain aneurysm from how much stress this is putting on me. Mundy sits in my lap and hugs me as I stare blankly at Cole, fear keeping my throat dry and shut.

"I'll go round up everyone else, I think we should at least _try_ the buddy system so things like this don't happen too often. See you guys in a bit." She rises and leaves Medbay, Cole waving with a smile. 

She turns to me, deceit about her. "I know that you remember, so why didn't you squeal?"

"Why didn't you off me?" I answer with a question of my own.

"It didn't want that," she tells.

"I could just rat you out right now," I threaten, quiver in my voice.

"But you won't," Cole laughs, "and let me tell you why. No one is going to believe you, that's the top reason right now. It's my word against yours, and your words are coming from a brain that's slightly shaken. I mean, you didn't rat me out just then and everything, and you probably still would not be credible... It's not like Mundy or anyone else was there to witness it."

"Witness what, Mama?" 

"Nothing, Mundy," I sigh.

I grit my teeth, and she continues. "You're indebted to me as my servant or whatever. I spared you and everything, you're my henchman now to help me look innocent while I go around and do Imposter things with my Imposter friends."

"...Friends?"

"Oh, oh, yeah! There's like... Multiples of us. Probably. I think. I'm not going to tell you. I'm also able to basically grant you immunity from them, but don't think yourself sneaky, I'm not going to tell you who they are nor what we're here to do. If there _are_ more than just me. Not until I'm certain I can trust you. Full disclosure, I'm just not ever going to tell you."

"How fitting," I grunt. "I'm still gonna snitch on you."

"Nope, nope! I'm not done being menacing, so shut up." She pats her pockets, looking for something. "I maybe perhaps had It infest you, you're now a ticking time bomb that'll go off whenever one of us Imposters gives the go-ahead. You'll never get the chance to find out why everyone leaves the SKELD the way they do, and you'll just be fodder for whatever beast or beasts- plural- got put inside you. Or maybe they're inside Mundy, I honestly forgot, to be completely honest for a moment here."

"You... You didn't..."

"I'm kidding, they're only inside of you. If they actually do exist, it's not like you just completed a Medbay scan unhindered or anything. But but but, my lovely manipulatee, I must introduce you to-" She pulls out my gun from her pocket and points it at Mundy. "Incentive through familial slaughter."

The air rushes out of me as the barrel taps the back of her helmet. I hold her closer, keeping her head over my shoulder to prevent her from looking down a dark tunnel of a quick death. Cole chuckles lightly. "I know, spooky right?"

"But it said... The guidelines said--"

"The guidelines said _It_ doesn't want them, it never said anything about the actual Imposters, y'know? Mundy's safe from the infestation that may or may not actually exist, but that doesn't mean she's exempt from spaceman homicide. So, whaddya say, pal-o-mine? Are we partners now?" I swallow hard and nod my head. I don't have anything solid to prove that Cole came from the vent, and I know for a fact that she isn't going to just shoot me now because then she'll definitely give herself away. "Great! Here's the thing, I'm benevolent and a sucker for keeping myself on everyone's good side, so I'm going to give you your gun back. Just for continuity's sake. Remember, though, there's always the chance that there's more than one Imposter that's just waiting to get revenge."

Cole goes up to my suit and drops my gun in the side satchel. She leans against the wall, and we wait in silence. She observes me from afar, a smug simper on her face as I try to avoid her eyes.

"Mama, you're holding me too tight," Mundy complains.

"I know," I whisper. Mundy wriggles out of my grasp as she hears Scout, Jimothy, and Triple-A chat with each other, running across Medbay to go join them. The crew starts to filter through a few at a time, Po and Meep being the last ones in. Uni pats my shoulder. 

"You doing alright, Morbid?" Uni asks. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"My thoughts are a bit murky, but I'll live," I answer quietly.

Ten takes her spot back at her stool. "Which is why I'm asking that we at least try out going to places in pairs, trios or quartets if you so please. It'll lessen the chances of something like this happening again."

"Wait, tell us exactly what happened," Minty interrupts. 

"I saw Morbid by herself, so I tried to tag along. I scared her since I kinda forgot to tell her _why_ I was following and caused her to trip and fall," Cole recaps her tale, still off to the side from everyone else.

"So _that's_ what that screaming was. I mean, it makes sense," Minty says with a bit of doubt, "but how would we break off?"

"Who wants to be in a group of four?" Nakii asks. No one raises their hand. "Group of three?" Con, Crow, and Battery all raise their hand. "Perfect, there you go."

"What about all of the pairs?" Meep questions. "Would we just pick and choose? Because I choose Po."

"And I'll go with Morbid since I feel bad about what unfolded today," Cole says, feigning guilt in her tone. 

"Uhm, Runky and I could go together?" Uni proposes. "Join us, Minty? Ten is going to be in Medbay by herself all day unless she wants a partner?"

Ten shakes her head. "I'll be fine, you guys go ahead and assemble your teams."

"Can I suggest that we be allowed to switch out whenever we want?" Runky scratches her head around the cheese. "Like a mix n' match thing?"

"I'm in favor," Nakii declares. "I'm going to go it alone and see how it plays out for you guys."

"So we're your guinea pigs?" Po asks with an accusatory tone.

Nakii shrugs. "You're the one who thought of it."

"Nakii, you can stay with me and Jimothy if you want? I'll follow you to your tasks, I already did all of mine since they're all in here." Ten adjusts her goggles. 

"What happened to being fine on your own?" Nakii points her finger at Ten.

Ten defensively put her hands up. "Hey, I was just trying to be courteous. If that's what you want, then that's what you want."

"I think I'll be on my own, too," Minty finally answers Uni's proposal. "I'll hang back and watch you lor."

"Also," Con speaks up. "We should make it a rule to investigate loud and very hard to ignore noises like a _scream_. Weird that you didn't go and check up on that, Minty." Con eyes them from across the table, and they shrug.

She crosses her arms. "My only defense is that I wasn't with anyone, and it could've been a lure to get me alone. Understand my logic?" Con nods. 

"Fine, I guess that's that," Ten sighs. Jimothy taps her arm and she grunts as he sits him in her lap. "Any other objections to be had during this not-so-much-of-an-emergency meeting?" She looks around for any indication of one and nods her head. "You're all free to go, then. Morbid, you can go, too, but don't over-exert yourself today. Can you make sure that she doesn't show any troubling symptoms like disorientation or a lazy eye or anything that's not normal, Cole?"

"Sure!" She stands up and removes my suit from the rack in Medbay, bringing it over to me. I stand up and step into it, pulling it over my arms and wiggling my fingers once they're back in the gloves. "Where should we go first?"

"Sh-Shields," I stutter. "I need to go to Shields."

"Then let's get to Shields, so you can finish up," she hums. 

"Great. Stay safe out there guys! The kids can stay with me again if that's what you want?" Ten rolls back to her terminal in her chair.

I look over to Mundy and the three boys huddled around Ten and Jimothy's book again and then at Cole. She smiles gently but her eyes look desolate and cold. I nod. "Yeah, she can stay. Be nice, Mundy."

"Yes Mama," she half-heartedly says as she's distracted by her friends.

Cole follows after me as we're the last ones to leave Medbay. I know that she has an innocent grin on her face right now as she acts as my watchful guardian. Any sign I give to our crewmates that indicates I'm in peril will be caught by her, and then it'll all be over for me. I swear... She did the task, she fixed the wires. The previous crew's notes said that Imposters don't do tasks, so why did she fix those wires yesterday? She even stopped me from doing it for her, she _willingly_ did them herself. Has she been an Imposter since before we boarded the station? She could have killed me in Electrical yesterday, but she didn't. It doesn't make any sense unless she became an Imposter between our time boarding and a few hours ago. I pick up my hat by Navigation, sliding the bullets back into place under the band before continuing on into Shields. 

I finally figured out that I was supposed to turn all of the panels the same color to reactivate the shields. I decided to end the day early for myself, needing to think through a scheme without Cole's doting derailing my thoughts. Mundy was reluctant to leave Medbay, but said goodnight to her friends and rode the lift with me down to the barracks. Cole decided to stay up a while longer with everyone else, leaving me and Mundy to be the only ones in our pod. We take our suits off and hook them up to the Replenish Rack and wash up before climbing up to bed. I plug in my PDA, the clock reading twenty-two-hundred hours. I pull the curtain over and turn up the heat a little, laying with my back to the window and Mundy. The idea of having an unidentified species living inside of me is unthinkable, my brain refuses to accept it. She did say _maybe_ , but it doesn't help much. She did also say that there's the possibility that she's not the only perpetrator in flight. I just can't, this is too much. I want to go back home, I wish I never agreed to come to the SKELD.

The lift goes up and comes down again. Now would be my chance. Opening the curtain slightly reveals Nakii and Sam, Cole nowhere in sight. I open the curtain and jump down, approaching Nakii. "H-Hey."

She turns and scratches her scalp near her horn. "You okay, Morbid?"

I nod. "Well, not completely."

She squints as she deactivates her robot. "Are you going to tell me, or...?"

"Uhm," I hesitate, the lift going back up. "Listen, Nakii."

"I'm listening, I've _been_ listening, just spit it out."

"I think, I think Cole is an Imposter."

She laughs and almost hits me with her horns when she bows her head. "Cole _can't_ be an Imposter!"

"No, no! I'm serious, Nakii, c'mon," I beg. "She came out of the vents right in front of my face! You have to believe me."

Nakii walks away from me and takes off her spacesuit to place it on the Rack. "I think you might've accidentally rearranged your brain a little when you fell," she giggles and holds her PDA. "I think I'd know if Cole was an Imposter."

"Wh-wh-why? Why would you know?"

She goes through her locker and takes out her hygiene products. "I just _would_. We've been friends ever since we were kids. We went through the Academy together."

"Then why didn't you pair up with her?" I inquire. "Almost as though you don't trust her."

"You have head trauma which is making you paranoid," Nakii states in a finalizing tone. "Go get some sleep, Morbid, before the rest of us get here. You sound _unhinged_."

"But, but--" I stutter. She ignores me and closes her locker, going into the bathroom. Cole was right. Or maybe I told the wrong person? No, she's actually right. I'm the least credible out of the two of us. At any point, she could pin me as the guilty party, and Nakii would back her up since I tried to accuse her of the same crime. I'm trapped, doomed to playing my bad hand without the option of folding. As they say: the house always wins, and I'm inside the house of an Imposter.


	4. Four: All Work and No Play Makes Po a Dull Girl

Cole looms over my shoulder as she watches me pull heaps of wires out of the wall and drop them on the floor in Storage, not bothering to help in the slightest. I shouldn't expect her to, but it would be courteous enough of her to at least ask if I need a hand. Mundy sits with the PDA in her possession on top of the boxes in the middle of the room. I breathe deeply and pick up a pink wire end, untangling the pile to find the other. Uni and Runky pass through and wave to Cole who waves back with a smile. I roll my eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" I whisper. 

"Doing what?"

_This!_ _"_ I huff, waving my arms around in frustration, bundles of wires in each hand. She looks me up and down and shifts her weight to one leg, crossing her arms. "Why are you an Impo _mrrrmrmrmmrrrrr,_ " I mumble and threaten to shock her with my cables as she bars me from speaking with her hand over my mouth.

"Shh, the others might hear you!" She lets me go. "And I don't have to tell you anything! That's _my_ business, so maybe you should mind _yours._ "

"Then what do you need me for?" I start to pick apart the colors and match them up to shove them back into the wall. "What's your goal?"

"Not mine, Its. It has a goal, and I'm just making sure that it's fulfilled," Cole speaks sternly as she's now upset by my short and tame outburst. "You think I know what It wants either? All I've been told is to-- Nevermind, that's giving too much away."

"Now would be a great time to share with the class, Cole," I flinch when the blue wires spark together.

"I don't want to."

" _Ugh!_ Meep, I'm serious!" Po yells and her voice travels into Storage from the hallway that leads to Admin, and I listen in while I match the yellow cables next. "Where are your tasks?"

"Why not finish all of your tasks first? Isn't that more efficient?" Meep counters. I glance up at Cole with a curious expression on and she looks back with one of mischief. I start to carefully place the wires back in the hole in the wall, reconnecting the red ones last. "Po, for real? You're going to call _an emergency meeting?_ It's your only one."

"You're acting weird, Meep, and I don't like it! You know for a fact that now is the worst time for your antics," she rips them a new one.

Con, Crow, and Battery enter the storage room from Electrical, Mundy slipping off of the boxes to catch up with Scout and Triple-A. I close the panel on the wall and wave to the trio, turning my attention to the hallway when I hear a soft clatter. Po groans and picks up her wallet that she dropped on the floor. Meep takes it from her, and Dukie growls at them. Con steps in when it looks as though a confrontation is going to start. "Whoa, hey! What's going on?"

"Meep is acting really strange and won't tell me where any of their tasks are, and we all know what the guidelines said about people who don't do their tasks," Po gives us the rundown of the situation.

"I was just trying to introduce efficiency," Meep sighs. "Po was going to waste her emergency meeting just to complain to you guys that I'm not completing tasks when I was trying to have Po do all of hers first. Wouldn't it be faster if she did all of hers and then we did mine?"

"But you didn't do anything in Electrical and we _all_ have something to do in Electrical. Like, c'mon, seriously?"

"You didn't even finish all of your Electrical tasks in the first place," Meep aggressively stacks. "And I'm pretty sure Ten doesn't do anything in Electrical."

"She's a _medic!_ "

"Well," Battery gently gives her input, "I see what you were trying to do Meep. Though, it _is_ a bit odd that you decided not to do your tasks inside of Electrical while you were both in there. I understand where Po is coming from."

"Yeah, me, too," Cole adds. "Maybe the two of you can go down to Electrical together now, and you can watch Meep do their task, Po?"

Po shakes her head and yanks her wallet back from Meep's grasp. "Nuh-uh, I don't think so. I'm gonna go it alone, now you've got me freaked out."

"I could perhaps be your partner? I'd hate to have you alone out there while you're on edge," Battery offers. 

"Nope, absolutely not. I'll need the adrenaline anyway. Good luck to you guys, c'mon Dukie-boy," she beckons her dog to follow her as she goes to Electrical. 

Battery turns to Meep. "Did... Did you want a partner?"

"I don't know if that's a good idea, Green," Crow hesitantly speaks and rubs the back of their neck. "Cyan _is_ acting pretty strange."

"There's no sound evidence to suggest that Meep is an Imposter, so we shouldn't alienate them because of this little mishap, right guys?" She asks the rest of our group for our input. I remain silent while everyone else murmurs agreement. "Shall we go down to Electrical, Meep?" 

"Oh, I actually need to go to Security to fix some wires, but yeah," they smile and walk to us, Battery joining them. 

"I was thinking of watching the cameras regularly anyway! Triple-A, let's go."

"Coming, Mommy," he runs up to her, and she grunts as she picks him up. 

"There goes one of our members," Con drones. "You two wanna join us?"

"Nah." Cole wraps her arm around me and pulls me down. I almost stumble as she reinforces her grip on me. "I'd say we're good."

"I don't know, I mean, having a couple of extra folks sounds ideal..." I trail off as I glance over at Scout and Mundy looking at my and Con's PDAs. They both tap on the screens in the same place repeatedly as if they're trying to perform an action. I push past Cole and walk up to the two sitting on the floor. "What are you two doing?"

Mundy hands me my PDA. "Funny button, Mama. It won't work, though."

"A funny button," I look at the greyed-out icon. It looks like a little megaphone, a word under is reading "REPORT". I tap it a few times, nothing happening. Crow looks over my shoulder, getting out their own PDA to check, showing me their screen to reveal the same. Cole pulls out hers and turns her device outward to present the icon to Con. "We didn't have this option yesterday."

"Maybe it's some sort of update we got while they were charging last night," Con ponders. "What would we even be reporting?"

"I dunno," Cole answers. "It looks like we'll have to wait and find out."

"Hopefully we won't." Crow clips their PDA to the front of their suit. I look down at my suit and snap the device onto my chest. Cole does the same. 

"So that's what that does," Cole says. She puts a finger to her lips. "We should perhaps get back to work."

"Yes, let's," Crow agrees. "Yo, Scoutster, wanna hear the rest of my story?"

"Yeah," he says. "Bye, Mundy."

"Bye-bye, Scout," she waves to her friend and he runs up to his father, taking his hand and looking to Crow intently as he waits for them to start.

"Okay, so, after we got to the river, we found out that all of our raccoons had escaped from the bouncy castle..." they begin their tale as the three of them leave for the hallway that leads to Admin.

The ship hums as we stand in the dark warehouse-like area, staring at each other. Cole's eyes glow as light reflects off of them, yellows and greens glimmering in my direction. I adjust my hat, standing next to Cole. She takes her PDA off of her chest and looks at the REPORT for a moment. "Someone is going to use this soon, it's just a matter of who."

"If you're planning on killing someone, count me out," I state in a low tone. "That's not what I signed up for."

"I'm not, I just have a feeling. But, if I ever ask to borrow your gun, you'll know that I did it. That's to say, you better not go around trying to blame me for anything I did. We're buddies, after all, so we'd equally be accused should our names ever align with the stars of suspicion. I'm taking you down with me, Morbid, whether you like it or not." She brushes hair behind her ear. "Which reminds me, give me your gun."

"No," I oppose. "Let us have just _one_ week of peace, Cole."

"No can do, buckaroo," she slides. " _I_ am a loose cannon. A menace on a mission."

"Mundy, c'mon baby," I beckon her to me. She runs up to me, a PDA in hand. I sigh, crossing my arms. "Whose is that?"

"Scout's," she shyly tells. 

I bend over. "And why, pray tell, do you have Scout's PDA?" She shrugs, and I pick her up, grunting. "I should start calling you Sticky Fingers. We're gonna go give it back to them."

Nakii breezes through the hall from Electrical and starts walking to Communications, Cole waving her down. "Hey! Nakii, could I talk to you for a second?"

Orange stands in place, Sam beeping as he catches up to her. She hesitates. "Mmm, sure, why?"

Cole runs up to her and whispers something in her ear, and they both start walking off to Communications together. A weight lifts off my shoulders as I turn to go to the Cafeteria, walking briskly and checking Admin before continuing. Now's my chance. Con might have an easier time believing me from one parent to another. I stand in the mess hall, hearing Crow's voice carry into the large room from Weapons. I approach, calling out to the Blue spaceman as Crow sits down in the chair and deals with passing asteroids while still telling Scout their story.

"Hey, Con, I think this belongs to you," Mundy holds out the PDA, Con taking it from her. "Sorry."

"Rad, thanks," he clips it to his chest. "Didn't even know notice I was missing it." He looks behind me. "Where's Cole?"

"She went off to go talk to Nakii about something," I sigh and hug Mundy tighter. "Con, listen, I need to tell you something really important."

"Sure, what's up?" He flicks the brim of his cowboy hat to push it up a bit. A guttural shriek rings through the halls, and we look at each other with cold stares. Crow freezes in the Weapons chair and releases a jagged breath, springing to their feet and holding onto their paper hat. Con grabs onto Scout's hand before he runs off again. He speaks reluctantly. "We should go check it out."

Crow leads us over as we take our time passing Admin and entering in Storage. We're beckoned to Electrical as we hear pounding, the doors pressed shut. They slide and hiss as we stand in the doorway, Minty walking out slowly and almost falling into Con's arms. Her eyes are hollow and her face pale. She looks up at him, grim. _"Just see for yourselves."_

I set Mundy down and tell her to stay with Scout, nodding at Crow as we slowly advance inside. My body is warm and my temp regulator matches, my skin becoming damp and my hands clammy inside my gloves. Crow walks around the facility lighting control box and frowns as they peer down below. I hug the corner, lifting my hand to my mouth and gasping. Po lays on the floor, wires tangled around her neck and hands as her gaze is eternally fixed on us. She's not moving. Dukie whines as he lays next to her body, patiently waiting for her to wake up. The golden retriever allows me to reach for her and close her eyes, whimpering as he rests his head on his legs. I pet him. "Someone go get Ten."

Con, Scout, Mundy, and Minty all leave for the Lower Engine Room to get to Medbay. Po still looks full of life, purple bruising forming on her skin where the wires are tightly bound. Crow follows the cables to their origins, the hatch that Cole and I interacted with our first day left wide open. Runky and Uni cautiously enter and approach us, marveling at our recently deceased crew member. 

"Oh my god, you killed Po," Uni accuses us. "You're the Imposter!"

"No, we aren't Imposters," I oppose. I turn when I hear sparking, Crow digging their hand around in the hatch. The yellow spaceman pulls their arm out of the wall. "Minty found her like this. We sent her and Con to go get Ten."

"Not that it'll do her much good." Crow crosses their arms and leans against the wall. "I don't think Minty did it, though. She looked horrified."

"Whoa dude," Runky slides her hands into her pockets. I didn't know our suits came with pockets. I look at my thighs and only see disappointment. Maybe it's only her suit? "Looks like we have a murder mystery!" She smiles vacantly. "A good old whodunnit."

Ten pants as she sprints past Uni and Runky, getting onto her knees as she checks over Po. "I got here as quick as I could!"

Uni puffs out her lips. "We're all too late. I don't suppose you're also a medical examiner, are you, Ten?"

She shakes her head. I look over to Crow, Uni pointing at the PDA on their chest as it flashes. 

"It's for murders," I shudder, looking down at my own as it is no longer greyed out. "The funny button is for reporting murders." 

Crow takes the device off and holds it in front of them, furrowing as they lift a finger. "If I press this button, we're all doomed."

"I think we're in trouble no matter what, Crow. I mean, just look at her," Ten quietly laments. "She's _dead_."

We all saw it coming, but we held our breaths anyway. We hoped we were lucky. They sigh, tapping the megaphone on their screen. All of our PDAs flash red with Po's ID picture crossed out. A buzzer sounds and then four guitar chords crescendo in over the intercom, and we look up to the ceiling as if to hear better. 

_**"Attention: A homicide has taken place aboard the SKELD. Stop all current tasks and activities and proceed to the Cafeteria for deliberation."**_

"Deliberation?" Runky asks as I rise from the floor and Crow puts their hand on her shoulder.

"We'll have to try and find the culprit."

Uni scoffs. "We don't even have any evidence!"

"I don't think that matters much, White," Ten holds herself as she rubs her arm. "I'm more concerned about what should happen if we _do_ find out who did it. Last I checked, we don't have a brig. Do we really have a crewmember onboard that'd do such a thing?"

"I think I might have an idea," I blurt. "And they're not a crewmate if they did this. This is the work of an Imposter."

"Save it for the meeting, let's get going," Uni stops me. 

Runky points to Po. "And leave the body here? Free Halloween decorations, that's sick, dude."

Uni hits her arm. "Have some respect."

"We were bros, it's what she would've wanted." Runky holds the cheese on her head as she shakes it. "She did always want to be the spooky man. Her dream: Realized. I think I'll thank the Imposter dude when we find out who it is."

Uni tugs on her arm to get us moving out of Electrical, leaving Po and Dukie behind. It had to have been Cole, I know it for sure. What with her statement while we were in Storage and the fact that she has admitted on multiple occasions that she's the Imposter, I don't think this case could be any more open and shut. Then again, she ran off with Nakii, and she did also tease the possibility of a second Imposter. If she decided to pair up with Nakii... A team. They simply must be a team. That might be why Nakii was so quick to shrug me off. No one else today has made any mention of my head injury from yesterday, so Nakii could just be covering hardcore for Cole if they really are an Imposter. 

I'm now seeing the pros and cons of declining to go into an investigative field with the Committee. We're the last ones in the Cafeteria, everyone gathering around the large table in the center with the emergency call button. Minty seats herself while everyone else stands, a water bottle on the table in front of her. The kids sit at a separate table occupying themselves with a conversation. Con purses his lips. "Can I be the first to say that Cole jinxed us?"

"I so did not!" Cole fights back.

"You literally said _'it looks like we'll have to find out'_ when we noticed the REPORT option," Con dryly counters. "Plain and simple, you jinxed us. Didn't say you didn't do it, though, for the record."

Battery raises their hand. "Question: Who passed, exactly?"

"Po," Ten answers, glum. "She was strangled to death with wires."

"Where?" Nakii persists.

"Electrical," she sighs. "I'm not a medical examiner, so I can't help you any further than the wires were tied in such a way that would've required a lot of strength to hold Po down simultaneously. It was an intricate knot, but it wasn't a noose."

"Who reported the incident?" Cole asks.

"Well, I did. Lime originally found the body, though." Crow gestures their hand to Minty. 

"Then Minty did it, right?" Meep assumes and points across the table.

Minty furrows her brow. "You think _I_ killed them?"

Crow interjects. "She couldn't've done that, though. She almost fainted at seeing that shit."

"Guys, the kids," Battery interrupts.

Runky giggles. _"Shit."_

We all glance at Runky for a moment because of her joke, and she loses her smile and puts up both her hands to dismiss herself. Con resumes the argument. "Crow, you also have to mention that Minty was locked in there until we happened upon her from hearing her scream. All cards on the table here."

Minty hits Con's arm. "Don't tell me you believe it's me."

"I'm not sure where my accusations lie, but we all should be completely honest about the situation. Let's not leave anything out."

"Okay then, accountability. Where was everyone?" Uni instills. "Runky and I were with the Reactor and were having a chat with Battery and Meep in the hallway until we decided to go check out the commotion when Con, Minty, and the kids ran right by us."

"Minty was obviously in Electrical and the one who made the body's presence known while Morbid, Crow, and I were all in Weapons," Con tells. 

"There isn't a camera by Electrical, but I feel like it might be important to note that I saw Ten leave Medbay before returning after a few minutes. I wasn't checking the CCTVs the entire time, so I don't know where she went." Battery readjusts her brown hat.

"Am I not allowed to leave Medbay?" Ten inquires.

"I'm not insinuating anything, Ten. All cards on the table."

"Okay, well, Cole and I couldn't have done it, we were in Nav together," Nakii declares.

"That doesn't exclude you two," I speak up. "If anything, that makes you two higher up the priority list of checking out."

"You can't have your cake and eat it, too, Morbid. You went unaccounted for some time when we split," Cole points the finger at me. 

"A little sus, bro," Runky adds.

"I didn't do it." Cole, I'm coming for you.

"Proof?" Nakii holds out her hand as if it's physical.

"I mean, yeah, Morbid wasn't with us for the entire duration, but I don't think she had enough time to go in and kill Po within the short interval from us talking in the hall and Morbid coming to bring my PDA back," Con backs me up. "Besides, she has a _gun_ , why would she need to strangle her?"

"The noise." Cole runs her fingers along the leaves on top of her helmet. "It'd draw attention and she'd have no way out, seeing as the rest of our gun owners have rock solid alibis."

"Wait, she had your PDA?" Uni's eyebrows knit together. "Morbid, why did you have his PDA? There's no reason for you to have had it."

"Mundy had it, I went to go return it to Con since Scout had given it to her I guess. It wasn't a conscious decision, and certainly not a distraction," I make my stance known. Uni, don't do this to me. I need you on my side.

"She also has a kid, guys, why would she subject Mundy to something like that?" Ten vouches. 

"And what were you two doing in Nav? I already calibrated it, so what was your business?" Con stacks.

"I was diverting electricity, Cole was just along for the ride," Nakii states. 

"Wait for a second, guys," Cole puts a finger to her chin. "You said she was strangled with wires, right?"

"Yeah," Crow confirms. 

"Where did the wires come from?" She glares at me across the table, Nakii joining in.

"From the panel in the wall."

Cole stands with her arms akimbo. "It has to be Morbid, then, she was messing with that panel our first day here."

"That's horsecrap and you know it, Cole, you were working on that panel, too!" I growl. There's no way she's going to turn this on me, she _has_ to be guilty. 

"Morbid, you hit your head pretty hard yesterday, and there was a small window of time in which you're unaccounted for, your location being within the vicinity of Electrical as we left you in Storage."

I throw my hands up and raise my voice. "What does my injury from yesterday have anything to do with it?"

"What if, and hear me out, Morbid's gone insane?" Cole turns her nose up to me. 

Nakii scoffs. "I think she is, too. Just last night, she tried to convince me that Cole was an Imposter while we were down in the barracks together. Sounds pretty _sus_ to me." She stares at me with needles. "Even after Cole offered to be your partner and helped get you to Medbay when she could've just left you there?"

"I wish she had," I yell, getting heated. "Cole and Nakii must be in on it. They were on the other side of the SKELD and no one else saw their group. I swear to you, Cole is an Imposter!"

"Minty still doesn't have an alibi," Meep grunts. "What if it's you and her, Morbid? Ten mentioned that it had to have taken a lot of strength to keep Po down while also tying the knot around her neck, and all three of you are around the same height and size. Clear your own name before you start throwing around dirt!" 

"I don't even have a stupid _motive,_ why would I need to kill Po?" I exult, frantically trying to get anyone on my side. "If anything, the two of you have about the same beef as a newly birthed calf."

"Again, the time frame doesn't match," Con interrupts us. 

"Minty could've easily been waiting in Electrical for the time to strike," Battery hesitantly adds. "She certainly didn't go in there while I was watching the cameras. Minty, where did you even come from?"

Cole seethes as she looks at me. "Maybe it's my fault that I left you alone, but it could be me that's in there instead. So, Morbid, how do you plead?" 

The room stretches as everyone eyes me down, Con and Ten still looking to be the only ones who're verbally on my side. Even so, I can't count on them to pull through for me until the end. Cole and Nakii incited all of this, and the hearsay is damn compelling. It's my move.


	5. Five: Just a Bunch of Hooha, if You Ask Me

"We're waiting, Morbid," Cole taps her finger on her arm. "How do you plead?"

"Not guilty," I declare. "If you wanna talk about cake eating, it's the same way for you. I may not have evidence that you're the Imposter, and you don't have evidence that I am either. Whatever grudge we have against each other: Drop it. Bygones and all of that. Baby steps, though. We have to find out who killed Po."

"Right," Cole sighs. "I guess we got a little out of hand."

"I still think you did it," Nakii coldly says. 

"Well, I don't," Con pats my arm. "Prerogative applies to everyone, believe what you will."

Everyone knows that that can't be the case. We all have to be on the same page when it comes to pointing out a killer. As much as I wanted to persist in accusing Cole, I shouldn't keep her too far away from me. She still needs me, and I'm sure she won't be able to coerce another crewmate into submission the same way she did me. Everyone already thinks I'm crazy, so I might as well try to keep my alliance with Cole for the time being. I turn back to Minty. "Don't think you're out of the woods yet."

"Hmm, am I allowed to speak now?" She asserts. "I've been trying to tell all of you that I was emptying the chute in O2 and in Storage this entire time while you were having your quarrel. I heard your argument and didn't want to get involved so I slipt past all of you and went into Electrical to find the dead body."

"That sounds like a lie," Nakii opposes. 

"I didn't kill Po. I don't know how to make you believe that," she sighs. 

Eyes dart from around the table, Battery clearing her throat. "Let's think for a moment, gang. How should we go about detaining the perpetrator, given that we find them? If we point the finger and find the Imposter, what's going to stop them from killing us at the drop of a hat? I'm not convicting Minty, but I'm not vouching for innocence either. We simply don't have enough things figured out."

"Making an arrest now obviously is a stupid decision," Con taps his chin. "I'd hate to be the one to suggest it, but we should skip out on voting for the moment."

"But," Runky starts, "I wanna thank whoever made Po into Spooky Season decor."

"That's all you're going to boil her down to be?" Meep scoffs, disgusted. "We were friends and coworkers, Runky, almost family! All you're concerned about is _thanking_ whoever killed her? We can't skip out, we have to find out who did this to her."

"I understand your sentiment, Cyan, but there simply isn't enough evidence or witness accounts to point us toward a strong lead. Unless whoever did it wants to come out and say it outright?... Didn't think so," Uni adds. "I don't think the Imposter left any damning evidence either. I also choose to skip."

"Two groups of five?" Ten asks. "I'd of course still be in Medbay."

"Ten, that makes you an easy target," I put my hand on her shoulder. "You should really pair up with either group. Everyone is held accountable. It's for your safety and also witness accounts of your innocence."

She shrugs. "I guess..."

"I still can't believe you guys are abandoning the search like that," Meep crosses their arms and furrows their brows. "I feel like it's my fault she's dead since I freaked her out and made her go out there alone. I just wanna do the right thing and find out who killed her. I still think you did it, Minty."

"Then so be it. I'll have you know I'd be your most valuable asset as I did some private investigations with the Committee. I was sent here as a contingency, so I'd be your best bet of finding out who the Imposter is."

"Whatever you say, Minty," Meep mutters. "I'm keeping an eye on you." Minty furrows her brow at them.

They refuse to let up in even the slightest. I don't blame them too much, I mean, it indirectly happened because of them. We can't just vote for someone all willy-nilly, though. We need more than that. Battery and Uni console them as everyone else reluctantly gives their decision of no contest. Cole still eyes me from across the table, a monster swimming inside her dilated pupils and malice makes up her sclera. I peel my gaze away and take off my hat to scratch my head. "One group of six and the other of five."

"Uhm," Ten lifts her fingers to oppose. "I feel a lot safer in Medbay, no offense guys."

"None taken," Nakii says.

"There should be two guns per group," Crow suggests.

"Right, right," Battery agrees. "Wanna partner together, Crow?"

"Sure." They point to me. "You and Minty are going to be in the second group."

_"Wow, suspects with guns,"_ Uni mutters.

"I'm gonna go with Morbid," Con states.

"Me, too," Cole says. Our eyes meet and she shrugs. "Hey, if you're ever suspicious, you can just shoot me!"

 _"Cole,"_ Nakii whispers shortly. "You're going to give her _ideas._ "

"I'm not a homicidal maniac, so just quit it. I already dropped my grudge match with Cole, so you can, too, Nakii."

"As if. I'm still going to do things my way." Nakii's tone is cynical and very distrusting as she opts to not be in my group. The tension becomes thicker.

"Well, I'm not sure I want to partner with anyone, but Runky. I know for a fact she's innocent because I haven't been able to let her leave my sight. It's like babysitting but torture. Even then, I still only trust her. Runky, do you still want to be partners?" Uni inputs with a tired infliction, patting Meep's shoulder a few times. 

"Sure, bro," Pink complies, chuckling.

"No! Guys, c'mon! You're just setting us up for failure like last time. The guidelines said it's within our best interest to stick together in groups," Battery huffs and hugs Triple-A when he latches onto her leg. "I'm serious, please, let's stay in larger groups."

"Mm, well, you're free to join us, Battery," Cole brightly extends an invitation. "Nakii, you, too if you're so worried about me."

"Ugh, fine," Nakii rolls her eyes. "You're getting annoying, so I might as well. I've got my eye on you, Morbid."

"Tekul," I sarcastically remark. "Awesome, great, good. That's our group then, right? Unless you want to join us, Ten?"

Ten shakes her head. She's stubborn, to say the least, but I don't think anyone is going for her anyway. She's the only one who's capable of administering legitimate medical help onboard, and I don't think the Imposters are going to leave anyone alive enough for them to get help. Should one of the Imposters ever get injured, it'd be up to Ten to heal them. It's best to leave her be since she has Jimothy and everything. All four of us have different ways of caring for our kids, and hers is to keep him in one place under an extremely watchful eye. 

"Me, Con, Cole, and Nakii," I sigh. "Then who else? I know Runky and Uni are together, and then it's Battery, Crow, Meep...?"

"I'm alone, and then Minty..." Ten trails off and we all put Lime in the light.

"I can also be alone if it makes you guys comfier," she presents, almost smug and reserved.

Battery whimpers. "Why not come with us? I hate seeing people feeling negative, more so now than ever."

Meep protests. _"Absolutely not!"_

"Meep, you're alienating her the same way that everyone tried to do when you were in the hall with Po," Battery argues sotto voce. "And- I hate to be the one to mention that- both Crow and I have weapons. So _only if necessary,_ we can take appropriate action."

_**"**_ _ **No,"**_ they rumble. I cave.

"Minty, join us."

"Weird how we're grouping all of the suspects together," Uni notes.

"Unless you wanna take her with you?" I rhetorically ask her. She puts up her hands in defense and backs off.

_Enough,"_ Ten sighs. "You're going to stay with me, Minty. Don't think I won't be watching you, though."

"Whatever it is all of you wish," she shrugs.

"Meeting adjourned?" Con questions. Everyone nods. "Good, now we can stop threatening each other with surveillance and non-philia-associated voyeurism."

Crow frowns at him. "Way to be weird, Sherrif."

"Thanks, it's a gift," he smirks, smug.

"Oh, Uni, Runky, could you perhaps help me and Minty bring Po back to Medbay? I... I want to make a preliminary report. The Committee thought this would happen, and I have a form to fill out that highlights the incident," Ten quietly requests assistance and looks at her PDA, Po's crossed-out picture still on the screen.

"Sure, we'll help," Uni agrees.

Battery offers help of her own. "I'll take care of Jimothy. He doesn't need to see that."

"Sure, Minty, come with me so we can get a gurney."

"Heading out," I say, Mundy handing my PDA back when she returns to my side. "I still have one more wire panel to do in Upper Engine."

"I finished everything," Nakii says. 

"I have two or three more things, but let's head to Upper Engine since it's the closest." Con pries his PDA from Scout's hands. Ten and Minty head into Medbay, and we wait for everyone else to disperse before we start making our way to Upper Engine. Cole walks next to me as we're a few steps ahead of the group, her aura piercing my hopes that she was truly willing to allow our stand-off slide. The door hisses before it slams behind us, banging coming from the other side. Con yells. _"Hey, Cole, Morbid, you guys okay?"_

"Yeah!" I respond. "We're okay!"

Minty stands at the entrance of Medbay. "What are you two yelling f--"

Medbay becomes blocked off, and she smacks her hands on the metal from the inside. Cole rolls her eyes. "Tch, you're lucky they didn't believe you, Morbid."

"Are you the one doing this?" I ask, looking around for Mundy only to realize she's on the other side with Scout.

"No, I don't have control over the SKELD, It does." Her eyes are slitted, her tone is deadpan, and her disposition is distant and brutal. "How brainless are you to try and pull a stunt like that, huh? Oh, right, you damaged yours." I press my lips together as she continues. "Listen, I hate being the center of attention. If you have outbursts that put me in the spotlight like that again, I can and will kill Mundy and pin the blame on you if I don't just go all out and get the two-for-one special. Got that?" 

"Go to Hell," I utter.

"My dear, stupid crimson coward, we're already here."

The thresholds open, Con, Scout, Mundy, Sam, and Nakii all coming through and analyzing the situation. Con tilts his head. "Morbid, you alright? You look a bit spooked."

"Woozy, but fine," I lie, exhaling despair. The Medbay doors let up and Minty stands behind the door with her arms crossed, Ten at the other end, shoving herself into the corner with a scalpel on hand. "What happened here?"

"I'm telling you, I'm not an Imposter," Minty informs again. "I think I'm willing to travel with your group before I somehow manage to accidentally give the poor sod a heart attack in her thirties."

"Ah, yes, the four suspects and the peacekeeper," Con lifts his eyebrows and puffs out his cheeks. "There is no way this could absolutely positively go wrong. Am I right, Scout?"

He looks over at his dad from his conversation with Mundy. "Right about what, Papa?"

We all eye him down with varying emotions. He lowers the brim of his hat. "Nothing, Scout."

I link arms with Con and start pulling him along. "Mundy, Scout, let's go."

The large machine puffs steam and exhausts fumes as it propels us within our orbit path. The temperature rises when we come near the engine, and my suit regulator starts to run cold as I squeeze into the short, narrow passageway. My back feels damp, and baby hairs stick to my forehead. I pop open the wall hatch and stick my hand it, an audible shock making me retract my hand. Minty squeezes in with me. "Help?"

"Please," I sigh, glancing at Cole and trying to telepathically communicate that she could learn a thing or two from Minty. She pulls out tweezers and helps me connect the cords, neatly placing them back inside the wall and sliding out of the passageway with me. Her forehead glistens when I look over to her, a hand on her hip as she lids her eyes at Con expectedly.

"And your tasks, Con?" She questions. 

"It's not the end of the week yet, but we can go empty the trash chute," he shrugs. "Keep it as clean as possible, I guess."

"The trash chute also gets rid of our waste, so I'd much prefer that," Nakii adds.

"Right, right, let's go then," he decides. On our way past Electrical, we check in on Uni, Runky, and Ten, the three of them staring at the ground. Con stretches his neck. "Now, this may sound crazy, but I could've sworn there was a body here."

"And a dog," I mention, Dukie nowhere in sight. 

"No one could have meddled with the body, that's impossible," Ten exasperates. "We were all in the Cafeteria discussing our plan of action. No one walked away."

"And we were the first ones here," Uni says in reference to her and Runky. "There's no way anyone had the chance to take her. Anyone happen to see a runaway pooch on their way here?"

"No, didn't even hear one," I shake my head, checking my PDA when it dings. My wiring task is still incomplete somehow. "Whoever took the wires to... Restrain Po undid my task. Would you need everything left as is for evidence, or can I redo my task?"

"There _can't_ be any fingerprints," Nakii curtly notes. "Lucky for you."

Ten pushes the gurney out of the way and steps around me so I can start fixing things. She watches me and shoots her hand into the electrical panel, sparks lighting up the box like a Christmas tree until she takes her hand out. I hold cables while she showcases what she found. "Maybe not fingerprints, but a chunk of a missing black glove might work! I'll be checking everyone's suits later."

"Assuming one of us is the Imposter, you have now set yourself up for one of two things to happen," Nakii sighs. "You are either going to get your evidence taken from you or you're going to get killed."

"Listen here, now, Orange. Disregarding that you would ever think about such an unfortunate event to befall on our team medic, I would agree that Ten has presumably made herself a target, but I would also argue that she has made herself immune as everyone in this room knows of her plan, and we'd just have to check every single astronaut who owns black gloves and see if they have a hole in theirs." Minty makes her case, placing on hand on Ten's shoulder and the other on my wrist to lift my hand. "To further this argument, though, we must also think about how all of our suits differ from one another. Already, we can wipe Morbid clean of suspicion since her gloves have no sign of being torn. Right now, everyone on board is wearing their default suit that was issued by the Committee with our differing indication colors, the single slight variation being the color of our gloves. Some are black, some are the same color as our suits. Just like yours, Orange."

Nakii looks down at her hands as Minty continues. "Some of our suits are wildly different in terms of style, though. My favorite one for example rembles a tracksuit that has light gray lines diving my indication color, coming down the arms and being used on the elastics as well. This suit of mine doesn't have gloves as it was made for traversing the ship rather than floating outside the craft to do repairs."

"Oh, yo, I also have one like that," Runky says.

"Same. The tracksuit is a staple of Wing Eleven. Is that your wing, too?" I ask, starting to piece together where I might've seen Minty before.

"Who? Me? Yes, I'm a part of Wing Eleven. Runky, I'm not too sure."

"Nah, I'm Wing Twenty-Five."

"Ah, Twenty-Five, the Roaring Thunderbirds," Minty chuckles. "If I do remember correctly, we, the Blazing Seraphims, absolutely _smashed_ all of you during our intramural sports this year, every single one of your wing records decimated." Uni rolls her eyes as Minty somehow manages to radiate humble energy from her bragging. "Back to what I was saying, though, this also means that someone could dispose of said clothing item. All we'd have to do is check the laundry log and cross-reference to find out if that particular garment was ever registered."

"Okay, that's pretty smart," Con excitedly comments. "Maybe I can pick up a few of your detective tricks while we're here."

"As long as you don't stand in the way of anything pertinent, I don't mind a shadow," she tells, closing the hatch door for me when I stow away the last bit of wires. "Yes, Con, the trash chute."

"We're going to get going. Stay safe you three," I depart, waving to Ten as we start to file out. "We'll keep an eye out for Dukie and Po."

"Oh! Oh! Is Po playing hide-and-seek?" Scout inquires his father. "I'll have you know, Miss Cruz dubbed me the hide-and-seek champion at school, Papa. I'll find her!" He takes a running start, but Con pulls him back by his arm before he gets too far.

"Hey, hey, listen," Con gets on one knee and has Scout face him by putting his hands on his shoulders. We look to each other, unsure of how to sugarcoat this. We have to give them something. "Yes, Po _is_ playing hide-and-seek, but she left us special rules."

"She'll run away if you're loud when finding her. Come get one of us and we'll catch her for you since she can run away from you super duper fast. Do you understand, Mundy?" I get on my knees as well.

"Scout? How about you, bud?"

"Yes, Mama," Mundy confirms.

"Okay, Papa," Scout agrees.

Lying to them always feels wrong. They should know. They _have_ to know the possible peril we as adults are in. Our children are immune to this madness. None of them are going to have to fear that they'll be killed to further an unknown agenda. None of them except Mundy.


	6. Six: The Worst Thing About Betrayal is that it Never Comes from Your Enemies

Runky stands near her pod, scratching her head as she looks down at her PDA. Uni taps her arm as she ties her black belt around her forehead. "What are you looking at?"

"Oh, uh, apparently, I'm the liaison," Runky informs. "Guess I gotta talk about the spooky Po Halloween decorations."

"Stop calling her that!" Meep exclaims. "You're so insensitive, oh my goodness."

All of last week went quiet, not even a peep out of Cole about sabotaging anything or killing anyone. She's... Pleasant adjacent when she's not threatening to murder me and my daughter. She killed Po, though, so I can't try to find the good in a person like that. We're still staying in our groups in hopes that no one else will be killed. Something is going to slip, though, I know that for certain. I just have to make sure no one else pairs up with Cole because their demise is guaranteed if trapped in an enclosed space with her.

"Ah, good morning, Morbid," Minty greets. "I see that you also decided to bring out the tracksuit?" 

"Yeah, I did." She wears her wing-issued tracksuit like I do, brightly colored with our indicators and personalized patches on the arms. She has a flag of the UK where my own Panamanian flag lies. I tie my jacket around my waist and stand in a deep blue tank top that resembles Con's shade. I flip on my hat and clip my gun holster to my belt, holding Mundy's hand as Minty, Con, Scout, Nakii, and Sam stand on the lift with us. Sam beeps as he observes Mundy who possesses our MREs for this morning. Nakii and I stare at each other, emanating animosity while I try to convey pacifism to her. 

"I like your hair dye," she finally says.

I pick a few strands and look at my dark pine green hair. "Oh, thank you. I like yours as well. Matches your suit."

"Thanks," she smirks, fluffing her flame-orange bangs.

_"Finally_ _,"_ Con whispers, _"you guys are getting along."_

Nakii shrugs. "Don't be so quick to assume. I just figured that I might as well have a cool rival if any at all. I still think you did it, Morbid."

"Figures," I whimper. Scout holds his father's hand and looks between me and Con. 

"Hey, your eyes match the color of your suit like Papa!" He looks at Mundy. "Why doesn't Mundy's match hers?"

They'll become red when she grows up a little. They're brown right now, but they'll be like mine soon."

"My irises were darker when I was younger, too," Minty elaborates. "See, they're lime now."

She pulls her bottom eyelid down as she points to her eye. The fluorescent green appears to glow with the lighting of the lift, the effect ceasing when she blinks and the lift clicks into place.

"Why do some of your eyes match and others don't?" Mundy asks as we sit down at a table. 

"It's just chance," I say as I tear her bag open for her. Runky and Uni come up with Cole on the next ride up, and my group sits around as we wait for Cole to finish eating. In all actuality, we're waiting on Runky. Everyone wants to be around when Runky goes into Admin to update the Committee of our newly deceased crewmate. We still have yet to locate her body, but we did, luckily, find Dukie. He was hiding in Security under the camera desk. He barked at whoever came near and didn't want to be touched until we coaxed him with food. He's a big boy, so whatever took Po had to be bigger to instill such fear into a golden retriever.

Dukie comes up with the rest of the crew on the next lift, nudging his face against Jimothy's hand as the boy giggles while petting him. Ten felt it good to have Jimothy watch over Dukie. The kid is alone in Medbay all of the time, and his mom is definitely on the shyer side, so an animal companion would prove beneficial for Jimothy. They sit with us, Mundy reaching over and patting Dukie on the head. It's deafeningly silent in the Cafeteria today. A clock ticks in my head, each tick getting louder and louder with the beat of my heart. I take a deep breath and start to bounce my leg, glancing at Runky to check her progress on breakfast. The moment she stands up, everyone does, throwing away our garbage in the chute and following her down to Admin. Battery stays behind with the kids in the Cafeteria.

"Do you wonder," Cole murmurs to me under her breath to not be heard by the others, "why Dukie didn't even bark when he saw his beloved owner getting attacked?"

"I do," I whisper back. "We can't dwell on the past. We've already established how two-faced you are, Cole."

She smirks at me. "'Twas not me, comrade. It's an important question to ask: Why didn't the dog bark? Even better one: Why didn't it bite? A teammate wasn't injured in any way, and if they were, they're hiding it really well. So, Morbid. Why. Didn't. The. Dog. Attack?"

"I-I don't know," I say, confused as to why she's planting this seed. 

"Food for thought." 

We file into Admin, and I take a seat at one of the back consoles, Con and Minty taking the other seats. Runky stands at the central panel, sticking her PDA into a side slot that grants her access to satellite comms. She turns to Nakii. "Is everything synced?"

"Yup, that's what I did last week," she answers as she huddles on the other side of the Admin panel with everyone else. Runky sighs, starting up the conference feed. The Committee answers, a soundwave visualizer on screen.

"SKELD mission Artemis Sixty-Four. Who is your liaison?"

"Runky from Wing-Twenty-Five," she responds. "Who are _you?_ "

"We see that one of your members has gone unaccounted for."

Runky scratches her cheek. "Uh, yeah. Po got turned into Halloween decor."

"Unfortunate," the waveform answers as Meep crosses her arms with a hardened look. "Have you found out who the Imposter is?"

"Uh, nah," she says. "You have any pro gamer tips?"

"Excuse me?" 

Uni walks around the panel and pushes her aside. "This is Uni from Wing Two. We don't know how we should proceed _should_ we find out the Imposter." She huffs, frustrated. "We have no brig, four of us have guns- two of which have been accused of being an Imposter- and we're thousands of miles away in space. What are we supposed to do if we find out who it is?"

"Dispose of them by any means necessary."

Uni backs up, startled. "What... What do you mean by that?"

"Dispose of them by any means necessary."

She scoffs. "You can't be serious! How would that even wo--"

"Tasks have been updated to your PDAs. Some will be entrusted with extra responsibilities to compensate for Mark Skid's absence."

"But, Committee--"

"Complete your tasks."

The feed cuts abruptly and we're all left feeling empty and hopeless inside of Admin. Uni shudders as she backs up from the panel, Nakii putting her hands on her hips. "Think you could've asked something more useful, Einstein?"

"Hey, Nakii, turn the aggression down a couple of notches," Con says to her as he gets out of his chair.

"She has a bit of a point, Con, believe it or not," Ten sighs as she leans over her lap. "Yes, I would prefer you don't be so brash, but asking questions like if we're allowed to bail and what would become of our children would've been good candidates for things to find answers for. Po's body is still missing, so another good one would've been what the hell we're supposed to do about that."

"I know this is a touch out of left field, but I just realized that Yellow isn't here," Minty notes.

We all look around Admin, Cole putting a finger to her chin. "Uh, where _is_ Crow?"

_"Ack! Crow, you can't show that to the kids!"_ Battery sternly notes from the Cafeteria. Con, Ten, and I are the first out of the door to check in on what's happening, Crow standing on the lift with a board in their hand.

"It's the best thing we have," Crow argues as they push their paper hat onto their head.

Ten points and readjusts her goggles. "Crow, that seriously can't be an ouija board."

"Oh, but it is."

"Why would you bring such a thing to space?" Con asks. "I mean, it's cool, but why?"

"Po can help us from the beyond," Crow explains. "We can find out who the Imposter is."

Battery ushers the kids into Admin as everyone comes out to listen in. An ouija board is probably the smartest dumbest thing I've ever heard of being brought aboard a space mission. Especially to the SKELD. I _did_ note that there were a lot of firsts with our group, and I suppose we can add supernatural seances to our list. If Po still remains here, she can easily confirm that Cole is the culprit. I put my hands in my tracksuit hoodie pocket. "I'm in."

"We are now entering the horror movie zone," Uni rings.

"As if we weren't there already," Cole corrects her.

Con crosses his arms. "I'm down if it means there's the chance we get haunted."

"Con, what the hell?" Uni gasps.

"It means I'll never be alone, and I get a witness should I die and Scout isn't there," Con shrugs. "But for real, all of our trails have run cold. Other-worldly sources are just as reliable."

"As a detective, I dispute that fact, but please, I'm all for it. I think we've all agreed that logic is out of the question here," Minty sighs. "Might I suggest that all of our suspects be the one to perform the seance? That would be a major gathering of bad juju, so she'll have more of an incentive to show."

I groan. "I don't think Po wasn't too much into people beefing with each other, so I'm fairly certain that our 'bad juju' will deter her from wanting to communicate."

"Hey," Nakii starts to add, "if I was killed with a load of colored wires in space with a limited pool of people who have the power to do anything about it, I'd want to snitch so bad, dude. Sounds fair, am I right?"

"Minty, Nakii, Morbid, and Cole... Come with me," Crow beckons us as they start to walk past us. They're brave if not immensely stupid. Trapped in a room with four suspects while trying to contact the other side. I've never touched an ouija board in my life. I think this is my first time seeing one up close. And now what am I doing? Performing a ritual and hoping to get an answer from a person long dead. Maybe she'll be able to tell where her body is, but I know for a fact Po is just as inexperienced in being bothered as a ghost, so I don't think we'll get much out of her if anything at all. "Sorry, guys, this'll be a bit dry and awkward since I don't have sage or candles on hand."

Crow sets the board down where Po's body used to lay and sits down, taking a deep breath and telling us all to sit down with them around the board. Uni, Runky, and Con stand at a distance, Crow clearing their throat. "If you aren't participating, it's rude to eavesdrop on a private conversation."

"Whoops, sorry guys," Con says as he ushers the two women out. 

"Now, I have an MRE as an offering, so I will set that aside. I don't know if you've guys have seen movies, but those are mostly dishonest about how this works. Spirits are always around us, this is simply just a way to communicate with them. You just don't want to make them mad or confuse them, so please allow me to ask all questions and lead our session. And please say 'goodbye' at the end of the session, it's rude to hang up a phone without saying bye so it applies here, too."

"Uh, alright..." Cole giggles. "This is exciting."

"Yes, invigorating," Minty says as she cracks her knuckles. "Let's just get this over with."

"Okay, fingers on the planchette," Crow says. I feel a chill run down my spine as my fingertips touch the wooden pendant. Would it be too much of a cliché to tell everyone I'm cold? We all sit in silence for a few moments as Crow rests on the moving piece. "Is anyone there?" Our hands start to move with the planchette in a circle around the board until we rest on the YES. Oh, I am suddenly regretting this. I look over to Cole whose eyes are widened in surprise, her bottom lip folding downward slightly at what we've just witnessed. "Po, are you the one we're speaking to?"

YES. 

"Okay, well. As to not anger you, I will refrain from saying your name too often. Just to keep things simple, if you want to say 'sorry,' just go to the 's.' If you want to say 'please,' go to 'p,' and go to 't-y' for 'thank you.' Does this make sense?"

YES. O.

Crow lifts their eyebrows and tilts their head. " What does 'o' mean?"

O. V. E. R.

"Th-this is _not_ a radio. Do you know who killed you?"

U.

"'U' what? Uni?"

U. H.

"You don't know?"

YES.

"You're confusing me already," Crow notes.

S.

"Take your time. Is this hard to communicate with?"

YES.

"Okay, let's try again. Do you know who killed you?"

YES.

"What's the first letter of their name?"

M.

Minty and I look at each other and back at the board. I don't think I've wanted to fight a piece of wood more, she knows it's not me. Crow furthers. "Another letter to narrow it down?"

I. S.

"Wait, slow down, is there an I?" Po doesn't respond. "Is there an I?" Still nothing. "Po, are you here?"

YES.

"Shaky connection?" Crow asks as a joke.

YES.

"That... that was rhetorical."

S. M. B.

"Did she just say 'my bad?'" Nakii takes her fingers away from the planchette. "This is fun and all, but I'd really like to find out who killed P--"

"Don't say her name you'll _anger_ her," I seethe. I'm into this, not going to lie. Even though I kinda think that we're the ones doing this subconsciously, this is still pretty cool. "Crow, ask her if she was in the same wing as her killer."

"Oh, good one. Were you in the same wing as y--" The sabotage alarm goes off, and we all duck at the blaring sound.

**_"Nuclear Reactor failsafe deactivated. Five minutes until complete Reactor meltdown."_**

Cole and Minty rise to their feet, but Crow and I quickly pull them back down. _"Say goodbye, say goodbye to the ouija board."_

"Goodbye and thank you for your time," I quickly say in a panic, our arms moving quickly in a circle.

N. P.

"'No problem,' are you kidding me?" Nakii yells.

"Po, you're supposed to say GOODBYE," Crow spews.

S. GOODBYE.

"Okay, okay, let's go fix the issue," Crow quickly commands and picks up the MRE and their board as we run out of Electrical. "To the Reactor we go!"

We run through Lower Engine and enter the Reactor room, Con and Uni on opposite ends of the room with their hands pressing against panels. The alarm still blares as red lights flash, Con rapidly smacking his hand against the panel when it won't work.

_**"Three minutes until complete Reactor meltdown."**_

"Ah, dummies, take off your gloves, it's a biometrics system!" Nakii shouts as she points to her hand. Con and Uni tear their gloves off and shoves their bare palms onto the panels.

_**"Nuclear Reactor failsafe reactivated. Maintenance system running... Standby... Reactor in need of manual override activation."**_

Ten runs in past us and accesses the Reactor console, tapping buttons in a rhythm call-and-respond system, humming as she goes to memorize the previous combination.

_**"Reactor manually activated. All systems stabilized."**_

"Is everyone alright?" Battery asks as she runs in with the kids and Dukie.

"Yeah, we're all good. Po wasn't much help, she didn't tell us anything about what's going on," I summarize. "Are we able to try again, Crow?"

"I doubt it. They hate being bothered in rapid succession," they sigh. "We found out that the Imposter's name begins with an M."

"So, it's either me or Morbid," Minty assumes. "I believe neither of us did it, I'll have you know. Morbid's glove was in perfect repair, and we all agreed that the scrap Ten found might've belonged to Po since none of our suits were damaged according to laundry logs. Might I note that Meep is also a contender?"

"I'm sorry, are we really going to believe something that a piece of plywood said?" Uni interjects. 

"It's the best we've got," Minty addresses her. "Trust me, I would only be looking at cold, hard evidence if this was a real case that came across my desk."

"Cold hard evidence?" Con inquires. "Y'know, I've been thinking--"

"That's usually never a good sign around here, but continue," Minty whispers sotto voce.

"I've been thinking about how you screamed and looked really scared when we found you in Electrical. You're a detective, wouldn't you have seen things like that before?" Scout reaches up to his dad.

"Seen what, Papa?" He asks.

"Don't worry, Scout," Con dismisses. "But seriously, Minty, why did you scream?"

"I was Internal-Affairs."

Everyone groans, Minty frowning. Cole puts her hands behind her head. "Yeah, that makes sense, I can see that."

"Whatever your grievance may have been with the department back home, I'm all you've got up here." Minty's right, we can't butt heads with her at the moment. We need her. "We should start getting our tasks for the week done."

"Uh, my PDA's screen is doing a funky dance," Runky says and shows her tablet to us. I take mine out of my satchel and look at the static. Tapping the screen does nothing, and we all look as perplexed as the next person. 

Battery looks over my shoulder and then to her tablet. "Oh, I think this might be because of the Reactor sabotage. It might've offset the fission cores. I know how to fix PDAs, but this'll take a while."

"How are we supposed to do tasks?" I ask. "I haven't looked at mine yet."

"Well, some of us did," Ten inputs. "I suppose we can break off into our groups and do the tasks we know we have. Except me, I'm staying in Medbay."

"As if we ever had a doubt you would," Nakii sighs. She and Cole eye each other before Cole eyes me. "Alright well, the Suspect Squad plus Con are going to roll out. I have to go do some things in Nav, and then downlo-- Scratch that, just Nav."

"And I have to go into Admin for card swipe," Con points to himself with his thumb.

Uni, Runky, Tripe-A, and Battery start to collect our PDAs, Crow following the three of them into Security. Ten and Jimothy bid us farewell and make their way to Medbay. Meep stands and watches us, following behind as we start walking. Odd, but I supposed they're just doing surveillance on Minty and I since Po mentioned an 'M.' I grunt as I pick up Mundy, handing her my PDA to hold to keep her hands occupied. We're silent as we go into Lower Engine, past Electrical, through Storage, rounding the corner at Shields, and up until we arrive in Navigation. Con and Minty branched off into Admin a while ago with Meep, leaving the three of us together.

We step into Navigation, and I keep my distance near the entrance while holding Mundy to my chest. She latches onto me and hangs her head over my shoulder. Cole sits in one of the chairs at a different panel as Nakii calibrates our orbit patch. Cole spins in her chair and giggles. "I just had a really funny passing thought."

I readjust my grip on Mundy. We're silent for a while. The beeps from Nakii's console unsettles me. "And what would that be?"

"It's more ironic than funny," she tells with a smile, "but I'm so glad you asked. So, as we all know, there's an Imposter in this room."

My eyes dart to Nakii, and she leans back in her chair. "Cole--"

"What? We all know," she shrugs.

"Yeah, we all know it's Cole," I raise my voice. 

"Uhm, no?" Nakii puffs out her lips. "I kinda enjoy living, I don't know about you."

"As do I. Which is why I tried to vote out the real culprit! We wouldn't be in this situation had you backed me up and voted Cole. The two of you have to be a team."

Naki furrows her bros. "But Cole _didn't_ do anything to Po. We were legitimately in here the entire time, bro, I don't know what to tell you."

_"Nobody ever knows what to tell anyone,"_ I whisper under my breath. "Look, Nakii, Cole has told me on multiple occasions that she's the Imposter. She popped out of a vent and chased me down the hall on the day I fell and hit my head. She caused that to happen as I tried to get away from her because she had my gun."

"I'm... I'm so unsure of how hard you hit your head."

"Ten said I'm fine! She did a Medbay scan of me at the end of the week last week, remember? She said nothing was wrong. Not a _thing._ "

Cole stands up and starts to pace in a circle around the room. "Wow, you're really driven to drag my name through the mud."

She stops right in front of me, and I back up once she's gotten too close. I look up at her and start to bare my teeth. "It's not slander if it's true." Her eyebrows flatten as she gives me a horrid smile, her pupils growing and beginning to cover the entire surface of her eyes. My back hits the wall, but I keep standing my ground. "The two of you are a team and are ganging up on me right now. If you were to kill me, they'd know it was both of you because we were all in here together."

Nakii stands up. "Enough! You're getting on my nerves with how _empty_ your accusations are. Where's your proof, huh? What do you have that incriminates Cole?"

Meep comes in and pushes both Cole and Nakii away from me. "Witch-hunting isn't going to get anything done."

"Meep, you know it's her and Minty," Nakii directs her attention to them.

"Mm-mmm, just her," Meep shakes their head and points to me. "Minty had so many opportunities to kill Con because I left them altogether to go into Security to monitor if they ever came out. Give us one good reason not to turn you in right now."

Cole snickers and stifles a laugh, clearing her throat and apologizing as she puts a hand on Nakii's shoulder. "I, I actually have a pretty good one. Nakii, I really have to say sorry because my ironic thought was that of drama."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Yes, I'm the Imposter," she so boldly admits, "but, really, everyone in this room knows already. We're really not that exclusive."

Nakii's taken aback by this statement, as am I. "C-Cole, what the hell are you saying?"

"Everyone knows I'm the Imposter."

"W-what..." she shudders, backing up.

Cole turns aggressive. "What are you, _**deaf?** _I'm the Imposter, and everyone in this room knows it, Nakii. But I just realized that having so many people in on this secret is really exhausting, so I'm going to have to drop two of you." She calms down and cups Nakii's face, sounding sweet and gentle as Nakii hugs her. Cole's eyes turn to me and Meep. "It's nothing personal, really. But only one of you are legitimately helpful to me with the given circumstances."

"Cole, please think about this," I feel tears prick my eyes. "I have a kid... Please, don't let her live without me, God, please."

"I won't, you're the useful one," she brightly smiles and pushes Nakii away to cup her face. Nakii sheds a tear, not able to get the final word in as Cole twists her head around with a chilling _crack!_ and pushes her over. I hold Mundy closer and shake, putting my hand over my mouth and letting tears flow. The perpetrator gets on her knees and opens the vent, shimmying inside and humming while she does so, as if she didn't murder someone in cold blood. Meep reaches out to me with her hands, and I smack her away, wailing as this might be my end. Cole calls from inside the vent. "No! Wait! Leave her. Let her live, she has a gun."

Meep quickly follows after Cole into the vent, jumping in with her and closing the hatch. I can't report this, I don't have my PDA. Backing out to face Mundy away from the scene, I start to run to Medbay. That's a guarantee. Ten's always going to be there. Mundy keeps asking me what's wrong, why we're running, and why I'm crying. "Nothing, baby. Don't worry, it's fine."

I stop near the Emergency Meeting button, sniffling and panting as I walk up to it and pull out my wallet.

No.

I can't.

They'll tell everyone it was me.

I set Mundy down and have her sit at the table while I pace and think. Something. I have to do _something._ I wipe my eyes and take off my helmet to put my fingers in my hair. This is agonizing. I have to do something. Nakii doesn't deserve this. I have to tell someone. I should call a meeting, but Meep and Cole could easily turn around and vote me as the Imposter. Both of them are a team, and I can't do anything to oppose that. 

"Mama," Mundy calls out for me. "Why are you sad?" My feet stop moving as I look down at her. My throat is pinched closed, and I can't say anything. I walk up to her and get on my knees, laying my head in her lap as I turn onto my side and hold her waist. I quietly sob as she puts her hands on my head, messing with my hair. 

I'm essentially defeated. We're all doomed. Nothing is going to go right. I gasp and shudder as I shiver, trying to resist the urge to cry harder or else should someone come in and interrogate me on the situation. I finally attend to Mundy, resting on my haunches and firmly placing my hands on her arms. She wipes away my tears, and I let out a chuckle in the form of a weep. "I just love you so so much."

Doing nothing is doing something, and I now understand why the dog didn't bark.


	7. Seven: Cry and Weep, Nakii Never Made a Peep

I close my eyes and all I see is Nakii's shattered gaze of melancholy laden with sheer fear. She didn't know any better. Neither of us did. Mundy sleeps next to me on her belly, something I told her not to do because then she'll get heartburn a lot easier. Sleep evades me. Or maybe I evade it. I need to think of a plan and fast, or else I could be next.

Everything is a clutter of worry and distraught as I try to piece together some kind of narrative that allows me to illustrate both Meep and Cole as the Imposters in one fell swoop. Meep went into the air-vent with Cole, they're an Imposter with her, there's no way that they aren't. Maybe I should take baby steps and start just with Cole. She's killed two people at this point, anyway. Who else knows about her murderer status?

I don't know how late it is, Battery is still tinkering with our PDAs. It can't be by much because a good chunk of our team turned in for the night when we quickly realized that there was nothing else we could do but wait. How Nakii's body has gone undiscovered all of this time is beyond me. I would do it, but I'm pretty sure I'd be condemned the moment I hit that big red button. Someone walks past my pod and opens the curtains to another.

"Dude," Ten groans, "it's, like, Satan o'clock. What do you want?"

"Ten, I found something," Battery shudders. "Actually, someone." 

I sit up and open my curtain to peek outside. Battery looks up at me. "I-It's Nakii."

Ten slides out of her pod and stands to stretch, light on her feet to go suit up to check it out. I put on my suit as well, taking my gun with me, but leaving my helmet. The three of us stand on the lift, Battery handing the both of us our PDAs from the table as we rise up from the floor. It's cold, and my temperature regulator is really taking its time to heat up. Ten frows as she crosses her arms, weighty eyes as she's probably thinking about the loss of another crewmate. Nakii is beyond help. Both of us know this. The SKELD is empty at night. Nothing changes, but it feels darker. It's quiet. Calm. Stale.

Battery leads us to Navigation, taking off her hat and holding it to her chest. Ten shudders, dropping to her knees and reaching out to Nakii to look her over to the best of her ability. "Cause of death is obvious," she drones, "significant trauma to the neck. The force needed to achieve this is great, but not entirely impossible by one person."

We need to call a meeting. Neither of them respond or even so much as look at me. I guess I didn't say that out loud. "We need to call a meeting."

Battery places her hat back on her head. "Right. If I report the body, then the intercom'll come on. Ten, do you--"

I take steps back, feeling sickness pour into my stomach and burst, filling up every crack and crevice in my abdomen, I feel full, but the queasiness makes me feel so empty at the same time. Gurgling occupies my ears, and I can't hear them speak anymore. Nakii is dead. She's dead, and it's my fault that Cole is going to walk free. I'm not breathing, but air circulates through my lungs. I'm drowning. My eyes hurt, and the pain is nestled right in the socket. My fingers touch my cheekbones and inch up on top of my lower eyelid. It's so close, I could just reach in and scratch it. Scratch the itch. Scratch the itch. Scratch the itch.

"Morbid-" Ten turns to me and the room stops spinning, "report the body."

"Where did Battery go?"

"She went to go collect the rest of our PDAs from Security. I can't bring myself to do it," Ten sighs and closes Nakii's eyes. "I can't do it."

I press my lips together and tap my chest, without another thought, Ten's device showing Nakii's photo greyed-out with an X. The buzzer sounds and then the four guitar chords play.

**_"Attention: A homicide has taken place aboard the SKELD. Stop all current tasks and activities and proceed to the Cafeteria for deliberation."_**

"Once again," Ten mopes. _"Once again."_

I help her to her feet and put my arm around her to turn her away from the body. Neither of us needs to see that. Her face turns a powder pink and she sniffles, looking up and blinking rapidly to keep herself from crying. There aren't any words that I know of that could help ease her, so it's better if I just keep my mouth shut like I always do. Like I'm supposed to do. Our footsteps echo through Weapons and land in Caf, the whirr of the lift coming up drowning out the noise. We stand and wait for it to click into place, everyone offloading and distributing themselves around the table. Cole lets out a gentle sob, and I stare at her, astonished. "It's Nakii, isn't it? She wasn't in her pod and she obviously isn't in the lift with us. It has to be her."

"Unfortunately, you're correct," Ten confirms, taking a deep breath and collecting herself with a hardened expression.

"I made sure the kids were all still in bed," Con informs. "Obviously, we don't need them around for this." Battery comes hobbling back to us, setting down our tablets on the table and handing them back. "Oh, thanks Battery."

"It was needed, especially given the circumstances."

Uni crosses her arms and clears her throat to grab our attention. "Let's get started. Where was the body?"

"Navigation," Battery and Ten say in unison. Ten continues. "Battery came to get me from my pod, and Morbid came along for the ride. Nakii wa--"

"That's already suspicious," Uni interrupts her. "Morbid, this is the second time you've been present for a body discovery."

Cole wipes her eyes. "It wasn't Morbid, she was with me the entire day, not once did we split up."

I let out a shaky breath. Did I hear that correctly? Did Cole just account for me? This is off-putting, watching her lament a death she caused and all of a sudden backing me up without having to be asked. This can't be Cole, it really can't. Cole is a snake: Slick and quick. She's smart and charismatic, able to flip the script on you at the speed of light. She's just acting. She truly doesn't care. I swallow my doubts. "Yeah, I was with Cole the entire time."

"Then what became of Nakii was caused by the two of you separating from her," Minty yawns, her hair bed-ridden and her lips devoid of its usual black color. "Con and I were in Admin together, and you two went off to follow Nakii into Navigation. That's where you last saw her, and that's where her body lay. What, pray tell, were you two doing in the time-period that you left her alone?"

"Morbid and I went down into Shields since that was one of my tasks. We _did_ go back to check on her, and she was fine. She said she was fine, so we left to go to Storage. We-We-" Cole frowns and covers her eyes, "we shouldn't have left her."

Everyone else acknowledges this is weird, it's not just me. Runky gently pats her shoulder as Ten talks. "It's not completely impossible that it was just one person who did this to her. I was in Medbay, and Uni and Runky were with you, Battery, right?"

"Mm-hmm, Crow, too. They helped disassemble and reassemble our PDAs," Battery nods and turns to Meep. "Where were you?"

"I was with Minty and Con," they say. 

"Yes, that's true, but you soon left us afterward," Minty corrects. "You were heading down to Storage if I remember correctly, and then I saw you and Cole walking over to... Electrical." She stares at me. "Morbid. Where were you really?"

"Ca-Cafeteria," I whisper. This is unraveling, we've been caught. "Mundy and I were in Cafeteria."

"Cole, you lied, then," Con points to her. "Morbid wasn't with you the entire time, and there's a space where she wasn't with anyone. What the hell is going on here?"

Uni lowers her eyebrows. "You must be a team, then. Weird how the two of you threw each other under the bus so quickly during our last debate."

"Wait, wait," Ten shakes her head and cuts in, putting her hand on my shoulder. "That can't be the case. It's, like, four in the morning back home right now, and we were all active at noonish. Morbid's Medbay scan showed me that her subspecies is nocturnal, so she doesn't get much done in the day. She took up until the end of the week to get all of her tasks done _because_ of this natural habit. She's obviously forced herself to sync herself to our own clocks since she and Crow are the only ones in our group like that, noting why she isn't out and about during the nighttime. Daytime activities are too exhausting for her. That's also why she has her Mortisesque appearance with the sunken cheekbones and washed out brown of her skin."

"Thanks for the biology lesson," Uni says, "but that doesn't clear her."

"It does. The strength needed to kill Nakii wouldn't be found in Morbid. She's at her strongest during the witching hours and this crime occurred when she's at her weakest. Like with her fall. Had that happened at two in the morning, she'd have walked it off as if nothing happened. Morbid was physically too weak to commit this murder at the time that it happened. All of us were asleep just now, save Battery, right?"

"Right, so then Battery could also be sus," Runky adds.

"Mm-mmm, no. Rigor mortis has set in because she's been dead for six hours minimum, and her body hasn't been moved at all since it started. If she had, some things wouldn't be in their correct spots, if you catch my drift.

"Morbid's subspecies doesn't start getting active until ten to midnight, five in the evening during eclipses, and six in the evening on daylight savings time, but I'm getting off-topic. Although rigor can take up to six hours to start happening, the cooler temperature of the ship and the well-ventilated area could very well have jump-started the process around hour number three."

Crow slams their fist on the table, speaking up as they've been silent during the entire meeting. "Say that again."

"Which part? I gave a bit of an info dump." Ten scratches her cheek with a finger. 

"'Well-ventilated,'" Crow repeats. "Vents. The vents go places. I noticed a vent _right_ next to where Po's body was, and there's a vent in Navigation, too, isn't there?"

"Yes, there is," I confirm. "Nakii's body was mere inches away from it."

"So our killer more than likely popped out of the vent, got the jump on Nakii, and then disappeared again through the shaft." Crow sorts out their logic, and we move on.

Con pushes his hat up. "That still doesn't explain why Cole and Morbid lied about their accounts of being with each other. Morbid's over here like a vampire, so what excludes you, Cole?"

Cole stands, petrified. Have we done it? Have we finally caught her? She slowly turns her head to Meep, shuddering with large eyes. She opens her mouth to speak, but her jaw locks, and she can only whimper, tears rushing out of her eyes once again. Cole's wails fill the room as she hugs herself, then putting her hands over her ears and shaking her head. "I can't take this anymore, it's Meep! Meep's the Imposter! Oh, god, please, it's Meep!" I cover my mouth with my hands, clasping my fingers against my face to keep myself from screaming. The cries grow ever more distressed, and I break down just the same, dropping to my knees and placing my forehead on the cold glossy tile. "It-it-it's Meep! They killed Nakii in front of me and Morbid, and then- then th-they threatened to kill us. I'm s-so sorry, they wanted me to do tasks with them to look innocent, and I had to leave Morbid by hers-he-her-herself, and Morbid I'm so sorry, please, I'm so sorry, I left you alone and I shouldn't have, I'm sorry."

"Morbid," Meep nervously chuckles. "It was Cole, right? She threatened us both and I went with her to appease her. It's her, _she's_ the Imposter."

"It makes more sense for you to be the Imposter, Meep," Minty cuts in, a stern and mean tone that I've never heard coming from her. "There are vents in Security, Medbay, Electrical. I'm assuming the three of them are connected because of where each one is placed in the room."

"I can hear voices carry into Medbay if I'm silent and close enough to one," Ten adds, getting on the floor with me to comfort me.

"Po was in Electrical all by her lonesome--"

"This trial isn't for Po," Meep argues. 

"Any and all trials that need to be held for any reason whatsoever will be in the name of all those who have fallen. _Especially_ if they didn't receive their justice in due time. Funny how _you_ , Meep, were the one that was ready and rearing to vote me off at the drop of the hat on little to no evidence that I committed such a heinous act, but the moment we turn around and do the same to you... Mmm, how very distasteful," Minty's ready to throw down, no question. Meep wasn't the one who killed Nakii, but they crawled into the vent. They hopped down into that duct like it was a fucking slip N slide.

"She's right, it's Meep!" Battery exclaims, quickly clasping her hands over her mouth in horror of what she just admitted. So much is happening, and I feel as though someone ran me over with a tandem bike. Two for the price of one. 

**_"What?!"_** Meep screeches. 

"Whe-When we went to Security together, before Uni and Runky came, I was on the camera and talking to them. They weren't responding to me, so I turn to check on them, and they're crawling out the floor vent. I just stood there and they threatened to kill me and Triple-A if I squealed," she weakly spills, backing up and moving closer to Uni should Meep decide to lash out. I slowly lift my head from the floor, heaving. My chest hurts, and the migraine I have is unbearable. 

"It's okay, Morbid, take deep breaths," Ten says as she moves my hair out of my face.

"Morbid, we need you to testify," Crow calls on me. I slowly turn my head up. Everyone's so much taller than me down here. The lights are so bright that I can't see much of their front sides. Shadows stand around the table with a hostile presence. They all loom over me, expecting something. They're waiting. They want it from me. They want the itch. I shiver, glancing at Ten and trying to decipher the garble that makes up her being. Meep stands across the table, towering over us all and having rage drip out of the cracks in their body. Cole is meek, small, and vulnerable. Everyone slowly starts to resemble people again. Everyone except Meep.

My mouth is dry, but I hoarsely speak. "Meep killed Nakii in front of me and Cole and had their hands around my throat with Mundy in my arms."

Fire engulfs Meep.

"Three witnesses, that sounds like solid evidence to me," Minty says. "Time to put this to rest. I vote Meep."

"N-No, hey!" Meep slams their fist on the table, and I flinch. "This is a trial, so you have to let me defend myself!"

"Three different witness accounts is more than enough for us to conclude that you're the one behind all of this," Uni stops them. "Battery doesn't have a reason to lie that it was you when she so graciously offered to have been your partner because she thought you to be a target. So you backstab her and threaten her child? You even go so far as to attempt to kill a mother holding her child. You're sick, Meep."

_"I never touched her!"_ Meep yells while pointing at me. Everyone backs away and starts to huddle on the other side of the table. Their eyebrows lower and teeth grit, seething vengeance. "Cole, you're a stinky, rotten teammate."

"How _dare_ you accuse me of being an Imposter after you kill my love right in front of my eyes?" Cole shouts and sobs as she sighs. "How _dare_ you come for me and smear _shit_ all over my name when you threaten two mothers and then conspire to kill them both with me as you take credit for my tasks just to throw me under the bus later, how _fucking_ ** _dare_** _you!_ " Cole pushes Runky away to challenge Meep, but Crow and Uni hold her back. 

"You were the one who killed _'your love,'_ quit the sappy crap," Meep mocks. "Obviously you didn't love her enough if you were so willing to bait her into being an Imposter just so then you could go and twist her neck like it was a fucking screw." Everyone's quiet, and I glance at Ten. She stares with wide eyes, her throat moves but her mouth is still. 

I slowly rise to my feet and wipe my eyes, deadpan. "No one mentioned her neck was snapped."

"Which it was," Battery confirms.

"Which makes you the guilty party," Crow redirects us. "I'm voting Meep."

"You've got one from me," I mutter, stale. 

The room fills with finalizations, and the census has spoken: Meep is the Imposter. Meep stands alone at the other end of the table but defeat cannot be found anywhere within their purview. The concept of such a feat can't be comprehended by them. They swallow their pride but quickly regurgitate it as they get on top of the table and lunge at me. I'm knocked back and skid across the floor as we both go down. I throw them off of me. Minty tackles them and makes an attempt to restrain them as she grabs ahold of her gun to threaten them into submission. 

Meep roars, elbowing Minty off of them and taking the gun. I panic, pulling out my own and pointing it at Meep. They don't hesitate for a moment and take a shot at me that I narrowly avoid when Ten yanks me away. Battery pulls out her own gun and fires off shots before getting nicked in the thigh. Ten quickly rushes to her and presses her hand against her thigh, calling over Uni to use her headband as a tourniquet. A fast one grazes my arm and I drop my gun, Meep yelling at everyone to stop moving as they hold Minty in a chokehold with the gun pointed at us. Minty coughs, trying to dig her fingers under Meep's arm to pull them off. All of us must've had the same idea when we rush them instead, Con punching them in the throat and Crow pulling Minty away when they get the chance. Runky dashes for my gun and waits for Con to move, sending off three shots and nailing two of them in Meep's abdomen. 

Somehow, though, they're still alive, pulling themself up to one of the tables and standing up. Runky spins the chamber and takes another shot at them, landing it in their chest. They're down. We take a breather, trying to process what the hell just happened. I hold onto my arm, slowly approaching the body with Uni. Uni kicks Meep over, their blood dyeing their cyan suit to purple. Their eyes are dazed and glossed over. I observe as Ten rushes back from Medbay with a chest full of supplies. She reaches out and grabs their wrist to check their pulse. As soon as her fingers wrap around their wrist, their eyes dart to me and then smack Ten away as they get up and grab my neck, using me as a shield. I squeeze their neck just the same and slam them against the wall. They reach for the vent. I latch onto their leg to stop them but my arm is weak, and they slither inside, escaping capture. 

"Battery, are you okay?" I heave, standing up and holding my arm.

Ten moves her tools over to Battery, hesitating on her next move while pressing tweezers in her fingers. Ten answers for her. "I think she'll be okay, I just need to get her into Medbay and extract the bullet. What are we going to do about Meep?"

"Stay on high alert and stay in large groups," I say. "Minty, you alright?"

"Yes, just a bit spooked, but I'm not hurt."

"I'll be the judge of that," Ten corrects as she and Uni help Battery up and act as her crutches. 

Con holds Battery's and Minty's guns, "Hey, that was some sharp shooting, Runky."

"Yeah," Crow sighs. "A little _too_ sharp. I would've jumped in had I actually brought my gun up with me."

"That was all instinct, I've never held a gun before," Runky admits with a smile, holding my gun out. Everyone steps back, and I lower her arm.

"Let's not... We don't hold firearms like that," I take my gun back and store it in my holster. "We should get ready for the day. It's going to be a long one."

“Can everyone come into Medbay with me? I know only a few of you were involved, but I just want to make sure we’re all okay,” Ten asks.

I stare at the blood smeared across the tile floor. Meep's face of anguish and pure malice stares at Cole as she looks in the liquid like a mirror. She stands next to me and whispers, everyone else holding conversations as they start to walk to Medbay. "Damn, Morbid, just saying that they were there was enough, but telling everyone that they had their hands on your neck?" She cracks a smile and holds back a giggle. "You're really good at this manipulation thing."

She quickly sulks and walks away to join everyone else. The reflection in the puddle stays, but all I can see is myself.


	8. Eight: The Thin Line Between Wiseness and Insanity is the Legibility of the Scripture

"Uni," I call for her as I pull Scout out of his pod. "Uni?"

"What?" She asks distressed, tearing apart her locker, searching for something. 

"Quit spazzing out, we have more important things to worry about," I brush my hair behind my ear and usher Triple-A into the bathroom first after I get him his underclothing for his suit from Battery's locker. "What are you even looking for?"

"Ah, m-my, egh," Uni sputters and moves onto her pod to check under her pillow and under bedding. "It's... It's not important."

"It must be if you're panicking so bad about it," I differ. Uni sighs and jumps down from her perch, placing her palm on her forehead. We have enough to worry about, so I'm just going to ignore the major stress Uni is having over an object that doesn't concern me. She's not a gun-holder so that puts me at ease that we're not missing a gun. I step up to my pod and open the curtain."Mundy, baby, c'mon. Let's go, wake up."

She grumbles and turns over. "But I'm tired, Mama."

"I am, too, but we've gotta deal with it. Get out of bed, Mundy," I sigh, pulling Jimothy over to me by the arm to make sure his suit is on correctly.

"What happened to your arm?" Scout asks as he runs up to me and points to the bandages on my bicep.

"I got a little hurt, I'm fine," I say to stop any further questions. Triple-A comes out and I push Mundy in next, getting Triple-A in his suit. Jimothy rummages around in his mother's locker. "And now what are _you_ looking for?"

"It's not here," he reports dejectedly. "Maybe Mommy has it."

"Maybe we can go check?" I propose. He nods and closes Ten's locker as Mundy comes out soon after. I get her suit on as the kids exchange their MREs. "Uni, are you ready to go?" 

She sighs and runs her palms down her cheek. "I guess."

"What are you missing? Maybe someone has seen it and we ca--"

"Don't worry, Morbid, it's fine. I don't want to make a big deal out of something that isn't that essential. If I find it, I find it. If not, oh well." She reluctantly surrenders her search and pulls her MRE out of her helmet behind her and walks to the lift. I grunt when I pick up Mundy and hold Triple-A's hand to step on the lift with Jimothy and Scout following behind. Uni hits the up button when we're set, and we arrive at the top to see Con and Runky mopping up Meep's blood. Thankfully, the large puddle has subsided into a few speckles on the ground that are just ketchup droplets to the kids and nothing more. 

"Is Battery okay?" I ask Con.

He plunges his mop back into the pool of water and turns to me. "Mm-hmm. She's still in Medbay with Ten. Good morning, Scout."

"Good morning, Papa." He hugs his father.

"And... Nakii?" I question.

"Yellow and Lime are watching the Halloween decorations," Runky says as she's on her hands and knees to scrub away the stain with a brush. 

"Yellow and Lime... So Crow and Minty?" Uni asks for confirmation.

"Yeah," Runky confirms. She sprays more cleaner on the ground and scrubs faster. 

I turn the kids away. "I'm going to go check Medbay. Be right back."

Jimothy and Scout run off together, and I take longer steps to keep up, but I can only go so far as someone who's five-one and carrying an arguably larger than average five-year-old. Triple-A flies off the handle and runs up to his mom sitting on one of the cots with her leg elevated on a pillow. He climbs onto the bed and hugs her, Battery squeezing him back. "Mommy, why is your leg hurt?"

"I just had a little accident, I'll be fine. I hope you didn't give Ms. Morbid any trouble," she teases as she looks over to me.

"No, he was fine. Scout on the other hand..."

He looks at me over from where he and Jimothy stand by Ten. "What? What did I do?"

"I'm kidding, you're fine." I didn't notice Cole sitting on one of the other cots when I walked in. We don't exchange words. Ten observes samples at her terminal with her goggles over her eyes, comparing something on her PDA to the test tubes. Three of the cots are hastily thrown on top of the vent in an effort to keep Ten safe should Meep resurface and decide to come after her. I walk over to her and peer over her shoulder. One of the test tubes is red while the others are blue. "What's all of this?"

"Meep's blood sample," she tells. "This data isn't telling us anything new. I ran some of your blood along with Crow's, Con's, and Minty's alongside Meep's. Of course, we know that Meep is something completely different, but it doesn't tell me anything about their chemical makeup. I'll send the results to the Committee with my body report."

"Which one is that one?" I point to one that's slowly turning purple. Ten looks up and leans in closer. "That one is... Yours. I think my sample is compromised since you got on the floor with Meep before they disappeared into the vent, though. I'll just use someone else's sample, don't worry."

"Speaking of such, we should probably get together to devise a plan should we come across Meep. They're obviously dangerous and a lethal force, so dealing with them alone isn't going to be something we want to do," Cole finally speaks. She sits with legs crisscrossed and taps her hands on her knees with a bored look on her face, her eyes looking at Battery's suit at the replenish rack. "We'd also need to curb-side pick up Nakii. Her placement isn't good for business."

"You're... Handling the death of your girlfriend really well," Ten notes.

"I'm disassociating right now. Everything is numb, so it'll probably come crashing down on me later on harder than it did before. Stay tuned," Cole yawns and puffs her lips out. I hold my chin as I observe her from afar. Something about Cole is far more off-putting than literally everything she does. I catch her glimpse at me, and she's covered in blood. I slowly put my hand down and turn around to look at everyone else, Battery and Ten both dead and too bloodied and bruised to make out what killed them. I shakily exhale and glance at the kids. All of them are eviscerated to mere table scraps. Mundy's slumped against the wall, and she looks up at me with destruction in her gaze. My PDA is clipped to her chest above her ripped open abdomen, and my portrait is greyed-out with an X. I rotate, Cole standing behind me. She holds my heart in her hand as blood starts to flow out of my mouth. I can't stop throwing it up. It burns my throat and flows out of my nose as I hunch over and watch it run over my hands and spill onto the floor. Cole squeezes harder and I choke as it just keeps coming and coming. I start to cry the same substance and feel the dam in my ears break. "Bless you."

I blink and stand up straight, glancing around at the brightly white Medbay. "Hmm?"

"You sneezed, so we said bless you," Battery says. 

"My ears popped, so I didn't hear you the first time. Thanks." I wipe my tear-dropped eyes and sniff. Cole now has an easily missable smirk on her face. 

"Aha-aha-hah," Crow hastily and nervously laughs as they enter Medbay. "Teeeen, you should really see this."

Ten's back erects and she stands up to go follow Crow. We stand in silence and listen to the kids talk to each other about finding all of the images in Jimothy's book.

"Hey, I found the spool!"

" _I_ already found the spool, Scout. Look for the paperclips or something."

"But I wanna find the paperclips!"

**_"Are you SHITTING me?"_ **Ten's yawp echoes and finds its way back to Medbay. I go to investigate, but Cole beat me to the punch and is well on her way out here. I decide to stay with Battery and the kids. Battery slowly inching up the bed as much as she can to give the group hints as to where each item is. I sit on Ten's stool, marveling at the sheer amount of detail on each page, and these little guys are just pointing out objects left and right before I can get my bearings just looking at the thing. Ten stomps back into Medbay with Cole in tow, ripping open a set of drawers at breakneck speeds and making a mess of things. She breathes heavily as she does so, medical supplies in unopened packages falling to the floor as she moves onto the next one.

"Whoa, Ten, are you okay?" Battery asks.

Ten snaps her gaze to her and huffs. _"Do I fucking look like I'm okay?"_

"Nice words, Mama," Jimothy mentions. 

"I wouldn't _start_ if I were you, buster," Ten points at her kid with stern eyebrows as the bags under Ten's eyes have darkened a couple of shades in the few minutes she was gone. "Can't even have a fucking _body_ around here."

"Ten, the kids have ears," Battery opposes.

"And _I_ have a mouth," she argues. "We just lost evidence, Battery. Cold hard evidence."

"We already know that Meep was the Imposter, Ten. You're blowing this out of proportion. Maybe we can all calm down an--"

"Do not begin to patronize me, bitch," Ten barks at her as she pulls out the next drawer. "Your subspecies practically has auto-heal on but I was nice enough to speed along the process. This is important to me, Battery, Okay?"

"Okay, okay," Battery eases off of her. Ten finally finds what she's looking for and haphazardly shoves things back into the drawers neatly enough to have them close. Ten looks at me and grabs my arm, pulling me along with her out of Medbay.

"Where are we going?" I question as I start jogging to keep up with her walking speed. She pulls me into Weapons, and then we go into Navigation. Nakii's body is gone. She holds out both of her hands to show me the lack of a dead person to be had. "Okay, I can see that."

"So we're going to go find it."

I sputter and turn to Minty and Crow who sit on the chairs in front of the panels, turned to us. "What the hell happened? _How_ did this happen?"

"Meep pulled her into the vent," Minty sighs, rubbing her arms and readjusting her sitting position. "Or, rather what was growing inside of Meep's body."

"H-Hah?" I drop my head forward and lift an eyebrow. 

"I- I can't describe that shit, bro," Crow says as they sit with their hands folded in their lap. "It was gnarly and bloody. That's all I got. I tried my best not to look at it, and we knew that we'd break something if we tried to pull Nakii back up which would compromise evidence."

"Minty, Crow, don't you have guns?" I'm trying to make the most sense out of how this happened.

"If you saw what we saw, you'd know it wouldn't have gone out well if we had tried to shoot it. It didn't see us at all when it started to manifest out of the vent, and I'd like to think I'd keep it that way. We'd be in that vent with Nakii if we had retaliated."

"Ten, how would we get her body back?" I spin in a circle as if I'm looking for a solution. "It's not like we can just nicely ask the murder parasite if we can have it."

"Come on, come on, follow me," she orders as she grabs my wrist and leads me into Cafeteria. Runky and Con watch us sink below the floor, and Ten takes me down the hall past the quantum computers and jiggles a doorknob. She takes out a key to use it, but the door won't budge, so she backs up and rams into with her shoulder. I flinch at the impact, but she does it again and again. She blasts through the door and barrels in, turning on a light and lightly browsing the many shelves stocked with bottles and bags. I inspect a bottle label: _**< Lithium 12-hydroxystearate.>**_

I set down the lithium salt and adjust my helmet as I walk up to Ten who hands off a bag of quicklime to me. "Why am I holding this?"

"The same reason I'm holding sulfuric acid."

"Ten, we're going to get third-degree chemical burns," I oppose.

"Not us, Meep."

Crow pops their head in. "Oh, cool, the supply closet is open."

"What do you need?" I ask.

"Something," Uni answers as she walks in with them. Ten moves and I follow her out and back to the lift. Whatever we're doing is certainly going to be life-threateningly dangerous, but I don't know what else we have to lose since Cole is still running rampant on the streets of London.

"Does anyone know how to lure out a beast full of pure rage and hate?" Ten asks Con and Runky. 

"I thought _you_ would," Con shrugs as he and Pink are still on their hands and knees scrubbing the red off of the white floor, "given that you're kinda going on a parasite-hunt."

"Yeah, Ten, you really didn't have a plan going into this, did you?" I gently inquire as I place a hand on her shoulder. She shakes her head.

"I'm just tired of watching this happen. I can't do anything to help you guys, and you're all dropping like flies," she grits. "I just want this all to end." 

_"End?"_ Meep heaves. I turn to see them moving from Admin. I almost drop the bag of quicklime.

Flesh. That's the only word that comes to mind. They advance down the hall, hugging the wall to be able to stand upright. Their suit sn't on them anymore as they showcase the carnage that Runky laid into them herself. They have no insides anymore, a hallow cavity with only their intestines hanging out and dragging across the floor behind them. They slip on their blood but keep walking, showing me the mangled skin on their chest. I step back when they reach into their abdomen and pull out a bullet. "Your turn, Morbid."

I blink and they're gone.

"Morbid, you've been spacing out a lot," Con says to me. I gaze at him silently.

"I just had a premonition, but it probably means nothing."

Con stops scrubbing and rests on his haunches. "You might as well tell us."

"It doesn't mean anything because we won't be able to stop it."

We're silent and no one bothers to challenge this. Meep didn't show up for the rest of the day, and Battery was up and walking around again as if nothing happened within a couple of hours. We covered all of the vents we could, but would that stop them? They took three to the chest, one straight to the heart. Some measly barriers aren't going to protect us. 

None of us went to sleep, so we ended up just sitting around in the hall in silence. Runky, Battery, and Con all sit on the edge of Runky's pod, Minty stands with her back against the locker, and the rest of us litter the floor. Cole sits with Nakii's robot, Sam, next to her. He beeps as he observes the room, Cole trying to reprogram him to forget Nakii as he keeps short-circuiting when she inputs the prompt of **_| >owner_/Nakii-reg_{392ORA} >owner_/Nakii-reg_=status; vari: {DEAD}|_**

"I miss her," Cole says when she chickens out of having him factory reset. Sam shuts off, and she doesn't bother rebooting him this time. Dukie went missing again. It's safe to assume we'll never see him again.

"I miss them all," Runky sighs. "I just want my bros back. What Meep did to Po... I can't thank them for it."

Minty sinks to the floor and hugs her legs, placing her forehead to her knees and beginning to gently weep. I move closer to her and lay my head on her shoulder, Uni laying herself out on her back on the floor. Ten has Crow's head in her lap, and she looks up to the ceiling with the backs of her hands covering her eyes. Crow sits up. "We could try contacting Nakii."

"I wouldn't be able to handle that," Cole puts. "Please, let her rest."

Cole feels real. Almost too real. Almost as if she's actually morning the loss of her partner. Minty lifts her head and hits it against the back of her locker, sobbing quietly and wiping her eyes as she only lets out gasps of air rather than her voice. She lowers her legs and bows her head. "I just want to go home." She sniffles and does her best to keep from the big one blowing over, but she's at her breaking point and can't go any farther. I feel a tinge in my eye and pull her over to me, holding onto her and letting her muffle her wails in my chest. _"I just want to go home."_

I let a few fall, but then a few turn into a lot and I can't help myself from holding onto her tighter and resting my head on top of hers. Stifling my grieving is suddenly the hardest thing I've ever done in my life when Uni hugs us both with puffy eyes of her own. Crow and Ten reach over next. Con laments and Runky piles on until we've all but broke down with fret. Sorrow and regret swirl around the barracks and washes over us like a surf-riddled beach. Battery is the last to join us, nuzzling under Con's arm with a blank expression. She's inscrutable. Lost. Empty. It's grim. Where did our fight go?

She carries the same look at Cole, completely devoid of any emotion that could even resemble compassion, sympathy, nor empathy. Not even a shred of pity can be part of her intentions. Cole still sits with Sam by herself. My breaths start to calm down, as I look through the open curtain of one of the pods, staring at the abyss with small twinkles and glimmers of freedom. A body floats by and heat drains from my body. Battery saw it, too. So did Cole. All three of us saw it, but Battery is the only one I didn't expect to react that way. She smiled.

Battery is an Imposter.

I smooth out Minty's hair and lean against Uni's shoulder, seeing flakes of brown speckle onto Crow's skin. Using one hand, I brush my finger across their cheek. They wipe their eyes and squint at they look at my face. Con has it. Uni does, too. "Ten."

She lifts her head and takes a deep breath, ogling our faces. "You're... Bruising."

"I've always had this bruise, remember?" I clear my throat of mucus. "Minty."

She lifts her head and looks at me with red eyes. "What it is?" Her skin darkens in patches of purple, some black and others blue. None of us got hurt, and I'm fairly certain bruising like this doesn't extend into our eyes. I cup her face and look her over, sighing gently as I watch the spots spread into her fingertips and stop just short of her elbows. All of us have different spread rates and coloring as I catch pink and yellow pockmarks on my knees and lift up my shirt to see blemishes on my belly. Ten's eyes, nose, and lips are the starting point for her and her entire shoulder is populated in no time. None of my spots hurt, and pressing on them doesn't do anything either. I exhale sharply, Ten standing up and sliding her suit on. 

"We need to go do scans. Immediately."


	9. Nine: Instinct, Runky, Doesn't Apply in Dark Places

"It's fucking official, _Dummkopfs,_ " Ten says, deadpan. "We're all _fucking_ infected."

"But with what is is the more pressing issue," Minty says as she applies her black lipstick with the reflection she sees of herself on her PDA. "We don't even know how we got it in the first place, but we know that the children are safe."

"And it all affects us differently," Uni adds. "Like all of our spots are different colors and spreading at different rates. Some of us now have skunk stripes in our hair, and others now have completely black sclera of the eye. Morbid's going off the deep end... It's bad."

"I am, too," Ten says as she rubs her temples. "I don't think I'm able to figure out what kinda bitch is making us all feel bad. Also, Morbid has brain bleeding, that's why she's having delusions and psychosis."

"Guess I'll die," I blurt with a shrug as I take a seat next to Con on one of the Medbay cots.

"Not yet, don't do that yet," Cole interjects. "Maybe there's still a way we can find the Imposters and get rid of them somehow?"

A scream rings out through the halls and the lights start to dim. People shuffle around in the dark, and Uni pulls out her PDA to use it as a flashlight. "You guys know the drill, go get into position."

"This plan- the one that we came up with in fifteen minutes-" Con sighs, "is going to get us killed."

"So fucking be it," Ten voices.

"It's better than nothing, dude," Runky says as I hear her rotate the chamber of Crow's revolver. "Saddle up, partner."

"I'm bait," I say as I stand up. "Since I'm dying and everything."

"Mmm, careful Morbid," Battery warns from somewhere behind me. 

"I really don't think I need to be. Everyone go, I'll set them loose in Upper Engine and then make my way down." I take out my PDA and clip it to my chest, watching everyone go down through the Cafeteria as I stand in the hall. Cole appears behind me, and I gasp. "Just do what you're told. Just this once."

"Hey! Look what I found," she whispers as she puts her hand over my mouth pulls me to her body, a sharp edge touching my neck. "This belongs to someone. I wonder who?"

She lets me go and runs off to go to the Cafeteria. I grumble, approaching the Upper Engine vent and pushing off the crate we placed on top. Immediately does Meep shoot out and knock me back before I scramble to get onto my feet and start dashing for Electrical.

"Runky, Battery, Minty, do it now!" I order as I run past Lower Engine and call into Electrical. Meep caterwauls and hunts me down in the dark, their bioluminescence keeps the entire hall illuminated. They aren't human anymore, they've succumbed to It. I run into Storage and wait until I hear the guns go off, Meep screaming at the assault but then refocusing on me when I throw the quicklime. Ten grunts in exertion as she follows up, slinging the acid at them and taking my hand to pull me out of the way. We cover our ears as Meep belts out at the top of their lungs and squeals, still going strong. The biomass that used to be Meep stomps into Storage in all of their wretchedness, steam coming off of the raw muscle and bone that was exposed in the midst of their transformation. I reload my gun and have Ten get behind me as I empty my chamber. 

Meep still prospers, and we dash out of the way when they try to splash parasite cocktail onto us. We run into Cafeteria, the doors locking behind us so we can't make an escape. Uni and Crow step out of the shadows, Crow shaking the bottle of air freshener. "In need of some assistance?" Before we can answer their quip, Uni flicks open a lighter and Crow lets loose a turret of flames. The monster stumbles and shrieks as it quickly morphs into a bonfire.

Uni groans in annoyance at their unwillingness to die, throwing their last resort bottle of water and isopropyl alcohol, causing the acid to become exothermic and the alcohol to hopefully finish the job as she shakes the air freshener can and employs the blowtorch again. _"Arson, bitch!"_

Meep retreats into the vents again as a flaming ball of Hell, Cole and Con extinguishing the flames with fire extinguishers. Cole kicks open the hatch and shoots foam into the opening, the doors hissing open as Minty runs into the Cafeteria, using her PDA as a flashlight. "They got away again, didn't they?"

"It," Ten corrects. "It got away."

"I don't know what else we can do," Con shrugs as he puts out the rest of the fire.

"Maybe start with the lights first," Minty proposes as she shines her light right at me, causing me to squint. "Oh, that's fun, your eyes glow like that of a cat."

_"Fun,"_ I sarcastically say. The lights slowly turn back, and we all turn our flashlights off. The floor is covered in black scald marks and extinguishing foam from our scuffle. There's no point in cleaning it, really, because it feels like we're close to the end. _Real_ close. Runky and Battery come into the Cafeteria, Runky handing Crow their gun back. I cross my arms. "A bit of a stretch, I know, but how about we have a chat with the Committee?"

"You saw how friendly and willing they were to help last time, right, Morbid?" Uni opposes. "I vote that to be a horrible idea."

"Our only chance of survival and getting the fuck off of this damn ship is to do our tasks, " Ten taps around her PDA. "Executive order: Everyone go do your tasks."

"Who made _you_ leader?" Crow fights.

"The fact that I have life-saving skills, dipshit."

"Valid," Crow backs off. Cole steps up to me.

"Shall we, Morbid?" 

"We shall," I unenthusiastically respond. 

"I'll go check on the kids with Minty and Battery," Con says as they stand on the lift.

"And the three of us are together," Uni says as she points to Crow and Runky.

Ten nods and starts to walk to Medbay while still looking at her PDA. "You know where to find me."

Everyone disperses, and Cole turns to me with a cheeky smile. She's driven on shock-value, so it's best not to encourage her for the time being. Then again, not paying attention to her would cause her to do it anyway... A lose-lose situation if you ask me. Cole jauntily follows me as I step around her and pull out my tablet to check my tasks. She picks my military helmet off of my head and puts it on her own, and I sigh as I smack her away from reaching for my gun. "Oh, I'm Morbid! I'm a killjoy and can never take a joke!"

"This isn't a joke," I hiss. 

"It might as well be now, you're gonna die. Be a nihilist, that'd be more fun," Cole complains as I step into Admin and take out my wallet to scan my card. The terminal beeps, and I grumble as I go again. Bad Read. Again. Too Fast. I groan and flex my hands before trying again. Cole giggles and drops my helmet back on my head, checking the admin panel. "Oh, this looks interesting. Hey, Morbid--"

"Whatever you're planning, drop it," I command and begin to get frustrated with card swipe. 

"Why would a knife have been found onboard?" Cole continues, I glance up at her with dry amusement before looking back down to swipe my card. "Better yet, why would another crewmate bring it on board?"

"Because of crazy people. Like you."

"Guess they never thought about what would happen if they ever, I dunno, _lost_ it."

"You stole that, didn't you?" I ask.

"Of course I did, Morbid, bold of you to assume I didn't," Cole sassily admits. 

"From who?"

"Uni," she tells. "She's a bit more on the paranoid side, and I don't blame her. She's up against _me_ after all."

"You're literally all over the place," I say without much of a lead-in as I finally get my card to be accepted. "A fucking mess if I've ever seen one. One day you're so nice, the next you're threatening to commit SKELD genocide, then you're crying your eyes out like a baby, and now you're just a cheeky little bastard."

"Wasn't I always one to begin with?" She questions, perhaps more rhetorically than I assumed.

"Yes." I start to leave Admin and head to Electrical.

"Okay, well, I need you for something."

"As you usually do."

"My PDA has this super cool app titled 'Sabotage,'" she explains as we enter Storage, "and I wanted to show you all of its cool features!"

"Please," I whimper. "Don't. It's too early for this."

"How come Meep gets a pass, then?" She taps around on her screen as I open the breaker box and wait for the module to spin before pressing the calibrate button. Fingers start to burst out of the metal and wiggle around as they try to grab me, my feet planting in place as arms pull me to the ground. As bad as it may be, getting used to having brain damage was way too easy of an adjustment. I know it's fake, but it's also not at the same time. I grab one of the fingers and bend it back until it snaps, pulling it out of the wall and observing the bone and torn skin at the end. "Okay, so Morbid-- What are you... What are you looking at?"

"Wall finger," I blankly respond as I rip another off. 

"Uhm... Okay. Anyway, so, I now have the ability to sabotage stuff whenever I want instead of waiting for It to do it for me."

"Oh, It," I interrupt as the fingers melt in my hand and have the consistency of mozzarella cheese. "I kinda forgot that It was a thing. Hey, do you think these are edible?"

"Stop being weird, I don't like it," Cole shudders. "Anyway, I need you to stand in front of the lights panel."

"Why?"

"So you can fix it when I'm done killing someone."

"How are you able to see in the dark?"

"With my Imposter vision," Cole says in a way that would be followed up with a 'duh!' "I pop into Medbay--"

"Don't kill Ten, she's kinda cool," I absently oppose as I go back to doing my task. "I would prefer you don't kill anyone, really. Just, stop killing people."

"This isn't fun anymore," Cole sternly groans. "You used to actually care, and now you don't!"

"You said to be a nihilist."

"I changed my mind, be a blind optimist! I'll kill Mundy, I swear, I will."

I grit my teeth and punch Cole in the jaw before taking my gun out at her. "Touch Mundy, I dare you."

"There she is," Cole taunts. "I have a weapon now, Morbid, I'll kill her whenever I want to."

I cock the gun as my hands shake. "I'll blow your brains out."

"I'd like to see you try," Cole gently pushes my gun away. "I'm going to pop into Security and do what I need to do, _you_ just need to fix the lights a few seconds after you hear the scream so then I have enough time to getaway. As per usual, you say that I was with you."

"Fine," I agree despite my wishes not to. I got too comfortable with Cole acting like she's weak that I failed to notice the fact that her manipulation skills are beyond comprehension. She might slip, though. Maybe I should pull some theatrics of my own to pull this off. Would that be enough to help me, though? Everyone is so convinced that Meep is the only Imposter when we really and truly have three. Or at the very least two. I don't have a confirmation on Battery yet, and she hasn't shown any ill will toward any of us. She might just be luring us into a false sense of safety. She has a gun after all.

"Mama!" Mundy runs up to me and hugs my leg. Con, Scout, Minty, Battery, and Triple-A all walk into Electrical, effectively soiling Cole's plans. 

"Hey, baby," I say as I hug her back.

"You guys wanna join our group?" Con offers. "Meep's still on the prowl and it would be a good idea if we're in a large group. Three guns, too."

"I'd be do--"

"Actually," Cole stops me. "Morbid and I need to go see Ten for something. We can join you afterward, though?"

"We'd still be in here I think," Minty says. "Quite a few things to get done by all of us."

"Great! See you guys soon," Cole pulls me by my wrist, and I grab Mundy's hand for the ride. "Morbid, don't you have to go to the Reactor?"

"I have to unlock the Manifolds," I answer.

"Nice, nice, everything is just going great," she sniggers with intent, and I tighten my grip on Mundy's hand. Runky and Uni stand around in Upper Engine, presumably waiting on Crow who's out of view. Cole pulls us into Reactor and holds her hands out as if to tell me I'm allowed to go do my tasks. I step up to the Manifold panel and turn the display upward for me to see. Mundy turns it down to face her, and she taps numbers at random, getting upset as the lights keep flashing red before resetting her progress.

"You have to go in order," I tell her as she presses the 'ten' key. "Okay, now you're going in the wrong direction." She presses 'five.' "And now you're just guessing."

"I'm going now," Cole says.

"Going where?" The lights dim, and I can't see anything. I sigh obnoxiously loud. _"Cole."_

I get pushed aside, and I latch onto Mundy, the vent we were standing on creaking as it opens. "Mama, why is it dark?"

"The lights just went out, it's nothing to worry about. They'll come on again in a few seconds," I say as I pick her up and turn her to the panel again. "What number goes first?"

"One," she answers as I tap the 'one' key.

"Then?"

"Two."

The vent flips open, and Cole starts to grunt as she tries to get out of the vent. The lights slowly turn back on, and I watch Cole wriggle around. "Cole, hurry up, the lights."

"Yeah, I can see that Morbid, just cover for me."

I step over to the entrance and see the other half of our group from Electrical approach. "Cole, they're coming."

"Listen, Morbid, you try getting this monstrous three-layer triple chocolate buttercream icing _cake_ out of the box," she snarls as she twists her hips and throws herself out and shuts the vent, rolling over as I step aside to let our teammates in. "I tripped when the lights went off, kinda embarrassing, whoops!"

"Are you good, Cole?" Con asks.

"Yeah, Morbid was just standing in the hall to make sure no one came in while the lights were off. I think it's safe to guess that Meep has night vision or something if they didn't want to give themselves away with the whole light show they're able to put on."

"You were standing right next to a vent, so you guys gotta watch where you put your feet," Battery warns as she points to the floor. I cross my arms and glare at Battery when she looks at me. She drops her sweet persona if but only for a millisecond to notify me of her Imposter status. The corner of my lip twitches, and I watch Battery's eyes melt and pour out of her eye sockets. "Let's go check on the rest of the team."

My arms swing at my sides as I lead us out, walking into Upper Engine. I stop short, and Minty stands next to me. "Right, what's all this then?"

"You guys were going to tell us about the dead body, when?" I point to Runky on the ground, face down in a pool of blood as Uni and Crow are turned toward the engine control panel. 

"What?" Crow shakes their head and turns around, dropping the jerry can full of rocket fuel as they look at me and then down at our pink comrade. Uni slowly rotates her body and stares wide-eyed at the newly made corpse. "That's-- That's a dead body."

"Yeah," I nod. "I just said it was... How did you not notice the dead body?"

Ten slides out of Medbay and sprints over, slowing down and leaning forward while doing so. "I heard there was a cadaver."

"Oh! Mommy, can I see it?" Jimothy asks as he stands back in the hall. 

"No, buster, not yet," Ten puts her hand up behind her to keep away. 

"Ten, he's a kid," Battery opposes. 

"Shut the fuck up green lady," Ten pushes her face away and approaches Runky, gently rolling her over. "Large laceration to the neck."

"Why does she look so content?" Minty asks. 

Runky's eyes are dead, but her lids still cover them in part as she still has her ever absent smile.

"She took that like a fucking champ," I blurt.

_"Morbid!"_ Battery hisses. Ten and I both glare at her.

Uni shrugs. "It would explain why we didn't hear her die."

"Or maybe both of you are in on it," Cole instigates. "You didn't even think about checking on the rest of us once the lights came back on, and you clearly didn't check on Runky because she's dead."

"It almost feels as though he isn't," Minty supposes. "I mean, we're all just standing around. Not even the kids are very phased."

"Well, it's just about getting that time," Cole sighs as she gets out her PDA to report the body.

"Wait!" Ten holds onto her wrists and gets into her personal space, their noses touching. "I can perform an autopsy. I can take a look inside her body and find out what's infecting us," Ten giggles and grabs the collar of Cole's suit. "We can be the first to finally see what's happening to our bodies, guys, c'mon. We know the body is gonna disappear anyway once we're done deliberating. We already know it's either Crow or Uni. Just vote them out right here while I'm digging a knife into his body."

Cole keeps drawing her head back, but Ten keeps drawing in closer. Cole taps her tablet screen as she's gotten extremely uncomfortable with Ten's behavior.

_**"A body has been discovered!"** _

"Did... Did you guys hear that?" I question.

Minty crosses her arms. "The dead body alert? Yes, Morbid, we hear it every time."

"It sounded different."

"No, no it didn't. Same old, same old. Let's get this finished and over with. It seems we have more than one Imposter on our hands."

I smirk at Minty.

Don't worry, we know.


	10. Ten: Dispose of Them by Any Means Necessary

"I'd love to start us off by expressing my big ass disdain for Cole," Ten sneers as we spread out around the Cafeteria table, our kids joining us this time around. Jimothy sits next to his mother. "Runky's probably gonna get body-snatched, and it'd be all your fault."

"Hey-" Cole points to her, "you were the one getting all close to me and talking all weird and creepy. I don't enjoy having my personal space invaded."

I adjust my military cap and bring attention to the case on hand. "Runky had her throat sliced and both Crow and Uni didn't recognize she was dead until the rest of us happened upon her."

"Right, so we know it's one of you two," Minty motions to both Crow and Uni. "Or maybe both with how great our luck is as of recent. I believe a search of persons is in order, wouldn't all agree?"

"Slow down there, cowboy," Con flicks the brim of his hat up. "There are two things that we should look over as of right now: One being that Crow has a gun and two would be that Crow is also a vampire like Morbid."

"We're not vampires," I correct. "But, yes, Con's right. Crow and I will be approaching after hour burnout in, oh let's say..." I check my PDA, "an hour. Just about."

Crow puts their hands up and shrugs. "I did not do it."

Battery lids her eyes at them. "Ah, yes. That just about clears you."

"Hey, I have a gun. I could've just shot Runky instead and said that I was aiming at Meep when the lights went off. I'd also like to note that I stepped away at some point to get more fuel for, uh, Upper Engine."

"You so did not!" Uni points at them.

"Oh my god, I literally did," Crow puts their fingers on their temples and pulls their hands back as they stretch their face in stress. "I swear, Uni, I am not going down with you. If you killed Pink and I get accused of it, I'm going to scream."

"I'd very much so suggest you don't get either me or Crow to scream unless you really want to show off your sign language skills," I note.

"Okay, well, I didn't kill Runky! Why would I have? I've been with her the entire time ever since we came aboard this horror attraction from Hell. I've had so many opportunities to kill her, and I just didn't. Why would I wait until there's a witness so close to me and risk getting caught?"

"You slipped up," Cole says. "Let's, for the sake of an argument, _assume_ you are an Imposter. If you were an Imposter, you would have seen that your buddy was able to successfully intimidate a crewmate into submission. Battery had kept her mouth shut for the longest time about Meep having access to the vent, so you _hypothetically_ would have assumed that you could do the same."

"I see where you're coming from," Uni nods, "but you're missing the part with the child."

"Hmm?"

"Battery has Triple-A and Morbid has Mundy. These two have an incentive for going along with the wishes of an aggressor. Crow doesn't have anybody. Not onboard anyway. Plus, they have a deadly long-ranged weapon. I'd be smoked in a matter of seconds."

"True," Minty weighs in. "In theory, though. This is plausible, yes? Crow, if self-respecting, would have still complied to keep their life, as well as protect their innocence should you have made your escape into a vent and left them with nothing more but a corpse and a 'bogus' alibi."

Uni stands quiet for a few seconds. "But I didn't do it."

_"Sus."_ Ten presses her thumb and index finger to the bridge of her nose while wincing. "Right, so, basically we have nothing?"

"No... We have something," I reluctantly admit, putting my hands on Mundy's shoulders as she sits in front of me. "Vents."

"We can't just blame this on Meep," Con differs. "I think we'd know if Meep did it. Y'know, them being loud and big and... Glowy."

"Right, I would've seen them, but it's not out of the question. Imposters are aliens, we don't know what they're capable of doing."

"I mean, Cole was laying directly over a vent," Minty notes.

I shake my head. "We have reason to be over it, I was unlocking Manifolds. I would've heard the vent open."

"Which means that the two of you would have as well," Battery says. "You didn't mention any vent opening, so it's either Crow or Uni."

"I don't know if you noticed, but Upper Engine is loud," Uni opposes.

Con crosses his arms. "But it wasn't when we found you. Listen." We go quiet, the ship still hums, but the engines are silent. He's right, we didn't have to yell when we found Runky lying behind them. When did the engines turn off?

"I'd also like to admit that I did hear a vent open," Cole conveys. "I thought it was nothing, but I felt a hostile presence pass by me which is why I fell in the first place. I was caught off guard. They could've just danced out of Reactor for all we know, Morbid, before you go to the door yourself."

"Heh, I see." Con put his thumb to his chin. "And your jerry can was empty, Crow. Gasoline would've spilled out of it when you dropped it. You'd have heard the vent open, and you'd have heard _something_ from Runky since I'm pretty sure she would've at least started choking when her throat was slashed."

"That point can be supported once I do preliminary," Ten says.

Minty taps her chin. "Okay then, let's focus on the cause of death. A quick and concise cut to the throat. Anything else you can give on that, Ten?"

"It's still the Witching Hours, Crow could've easily done it if they had something _moderately_ sharp. That still doesn't exclude Uni. Her subspecies doesn't harbor any interesting traits, but I'd like to bring attention to the splatter of blood on Uni's leg."

Uni looks down at her suit as all of us peer over to take a look. She scoffs. "I-- I'm--"

"Nothing to say, Uni?" Minty asks. "Curious."

"This doesn't mean I did it!" She disputes. 

I butt in again. "Second day here, I saw Crow chasing someone down the hallway, and I saw Runky zooming around earlier, so it could've been her."

"Was I chasing Runky? Yes. But that's only because I wanted to divert electricity first to Navigation since I'm very impatient," Crow tells. "Doesn't mean I killed her."

I add. "As well as yesterday when Uni seemed to be looking for something. She was pretty stressed about it like she was worried someone was going to find it before her."

"Almost as if she was afraid someone was going to find her contraband?" Con inquires rather rhetorically. 

"Yes, exactly like," I nod. "We didn't go over it the first day we were here because it's not too much of an important rule since they expect us to act upon the honor code. Having an unauthorized weapon like, say, a knife, would fall smack dab in the middle of Contrabandistan" 

"With these crazies around here?" Uni raises her voice, slamming her open palm on the table. "You'd have done it, too, if you weren't allowed a gun!"

"I don't have a knife," Con quietly challenges.

Ten hums. "Er, _technically_ I have syringes and scalpels, but- as we all know- _I'm a fucking medic."_

"Still doesn't wipe Crow clean. I reviewed the penal code that Morbid is talking about, the ouija board is also considered contraband. It could very much so still be Crow's," Battery puts her fists on her hips with puffed-out cheeks. 

"I'm telling you, a proper frisking is in order," Minty proposes. "Knowing you lot, you probably wouldn't do it, though."

Cole sighs. "Fine, we'll do a search."

"I suggest rather invasive. This is murder, after all."

"Right," Crow sighs. "I would like to request it be done in private."

"Of course," Minty smugly smiles. "I suggest we dismiss our meeting and head down to the barracks to get that done, then?"

"Battery, Minty, and Cole, you three go. Crow, please surrender your gun-" Ten holds out her hand and beckons them to draw near. Crow digs into their satchel and hands the weapon off to Ten, everyone stepping back from the lift and watching them go down. Cole winks at me as she goes down, and I'm very, very worried about the nature of said gesture. 

"Morbid," Ten turns to me, "I need you for something."

She wants me to help her with the body, I know she does, so I hand Mundy off to Con for him to watch her, Jimothy following Ten as she and I make it back to Upper Engine. Runky is surprisingly still there, and Ten runs up to her body and takes her legs. I move around to her head and pick her up under her arms. There's a good bit of muscle and leg that goes into carrying her back to Medbay, flopping her onto an open bed, and removing her pink suit. Ten hangs her suit on the replenish rack and steps up with curiosity as we look at her pink flamingo shorts and a cheese-themed tank top. Runky just has all of the cool clothing, doesn't she? First her suit gets pockets, and now she was apparently allowed to wear whatever undergarments she wished. "What are you going to do with her?"

"Dissect her of course," Ten tells as she grabs a scalpel and makes a Y cut on Runky's body without a second thought. Jimothy stands idly by, inscrutable. Blood pours out of Runky's cuts, and Ten flips over the skin flaps. "Perform an autopsy if you prefer to call it that."

"How do you suppose we do that?"

I look over at Ten who has her mouth agape as she thinks. Centipedes crawl out of her mouth and beetles rise out of the collar of her suit. "You know what, I'll figure that out."

"You said it yourself, you're not a medical examiner." I flick a cockroach off of my shoulder.

Ants march out of her ear as she walks away from me and grabs bolt cutters from the corner of the room, opening them up and getting a grip on one of Runky's ribs on her left side. She looks at me as she exerts force on the handles and snaps the bone. "But I can be." Pus oozes out of the bone, and it smells horrible. I take a few steps back and cover my nose with my arm as Ten pops another bone from her skeleton. She sets down the bolt cutters and grabs her scalpel again to make a slit in Runky's lung. Bugs fall out of the cavity and inch around on the pure white hospital bed. They aren't a species I've ever seen, I don't even know what to compare them to. "Oh, that's bad."

"Uh, are the bugs real, or...?"

"They're real," Ten says, curious. "She wasn't coughing and never reported chest pain." She grabs the bolt cutters again and pops off the rest of her ribs on her side to take out her lung for dissection. She sets it inside a metal bowl and hands a scalpel to Jimothy.

"Whoa, roly-polies," Jimothy says as he takes the surgical knife.

"Definitely not roly-polies-" Ten plunges her hand into the cavity and pulls out a wad of bugs, "but we'll find out what." She grabs ahold of something, and I feel a tug on my heart. "Morbid, are you going to help or not?"

"I'll help," I surrender. I'm curious. I want to see what's inside me, too. Digging my fingers into my own flesh isn't an option, so this is the next best thing. I don't want to get my suit dirty like Ten has, though. My suit is red, and it'd be hard to clean off of me. I sigh. "Actually, nevermind. Sorry, Ten. I'll still be your assistant if you need me to help."

"If you have something else to do, go on ahead. I think Jimothy and I got it, right, buster?" She asks.

"Yeah," he says as he pokes around the tissue with a pair of tweezers and a toothpick. "I found a spider with the not-roly-polies."

Ten and I look at each other before walking over to him. He compresses it with his tweezers, and it hisses like a beach ball when the air is squeezed out of it. It definitely looks like a tarantula, but an abstract caricature of a demon would be a more accurate description. It chitters as Jimothy transfers it to his hand. The... Thing? Alien? Parasite? Whatever it is, it steps around his hand and up the arm of his suit. Ten watches it intently, raising a hand to slap the thing at a moment's notice. Jimothy isn't threatened by it, so it isn't threatened by him. It steps around a bit more and shoots out a neon pink goo at me and Ten, steam lifting from the floor where it landed like it was acidic. Jimothy yelps and smacks it dead with his hand. 

"Ten, are you alright?" I ask while glancing at her. 

She looks over herself. "I'm fine. Jimothy, scrape that into a tube and wash off at the sink. "

"Yes, Mommy," he complies. 

Cole and Minty enter Medbay, Cole with my space helmet in her hand and Minty covering her nose in disgust at the smell. "Eugh, what ever is that stench?"

"Figuring that out," Ten rings like a song as she helps Jimothy wash up.

"Hope it's soon and that it's not a biohazard," Minty buzzes. "Anyway... Ten, Morbid, we need you in Admin. We're to discuss the findings of our search."

"Shouldn't we call an emergency meeting?" I ask. Minty glances at Cole, and she exhales through her nose.

"Morbid, can I ask you to watch Uni and Crow?" Cole's genuine and somber. "As depressing as it sounds, it wouldn't matter if one of them lunges at you."

The dramatic irony is palpable. "Sure. I'll take the kids with me if you're going to use Admin as a pre-meeting room."

"Oh, and here," Cole moves closer to us and hands me my helmet, leaning forward in between me and Ten. _"Battery is an Imposter."_

"Hey, are you guys ready?" Battery asks as she pops her head into the room. My face is stone, and Ten and I give each other the same look. I try to use my gaze to tell her: _Cole is on it, too._ Minty lifts her eyebrows at us. I'm assuming she caught onto the trend.

"Yes, let's go."

"I'm going to finish this mother fucker of an autopsy. I'll call the meeting when I'm done, sound good?"

"Whatever floats your boat, Ten," I say. Crow and Uni appear behind Battery, both twisting their faces in disgust and taking steps back. Curious. That's today's word. Curious. I take Jimothy's hand as we walk into the Cafeteria and sit at a table as Con brings the rest of the kids out for me to watch over. Uni and Crow sit across from me as the kids decided to get up and look out the window together. I turn to Crow and Uni, a quiet and stale tone slipping past my lips. "I know you neither of you are an Imposter."

"Then why did you stack against us? Against me?" Uni asks in the same manner.

"Cole's the true mastermind here. That day when I fell, it was because I was running away from Cole when I saw her emerge from a vent. She clocked me with her oxygen tank and now I have brain bleeding with the cherry on top being that she threatens Mundy the second I become insubordinate- which is every other fifteen minutes to be completely transparent for a moment. You can tell I'm pissed and tired, so let's talk strategy."

"How do we know that _you're_ not an Imposter?" Crow questions.

"You smelled Runky's body, right? That smell came from whatever was growing inside of her, and it's only safe to assume it was parasites." Both of their faces rest.

"No one will believe us, though. We didn't notice a dead body, we're both guilty of smuggling in our own things, and you're injured in your credibility machine..." Uni sighs. "This is hopeless."

"No, Minty and Ten caught onto it, too. They know. We'll get the right people, don't worry about it."

"All right, clowns, let's get this circus started!" Ten yells as she approaches the center table and swipes her Admin card with papers in hand, hitting the big red button and sounding a buzzer. 

_**"Emergency Meeting initiated. Immediately cease all tasks and activities and head to the Cafeteria for a rendezvous."** _

"I don't appreciate being called a clown, but let's continue, please," Minty starts us off as she takes a seat at the table. "Our search revealed nothing incriminating on either of the persons in question, but a quick check of Uni's pod revealed a bloodied knife gingerly resting on top of her pillow.

Uni looks at her flabbergasted. "What? I-- That's, that's impossible. I didn't kill Runky, oh my god. If I was her killer, why would I make such a stupid mistake?"

"Your own shortcomings are not being brought into question here, we've found enough extenuating evidence. Uni, I truly believe you're our perpetrator."

"Which is really rough," Con shrugs. "You seemed like a bad bitch, but you're really and truly just a _bad bitch_."

"There was no reason for me to slit her throat!"

"Ah!" Ten puts up a finger with a smug smile, throwing down sheets of paper. "Updated autopsy report time, bitches! Runky wasn't killed by getting her throat slit, she was stabbed first in the throat with a long, razor-sharp object from behind. It had to have been cylindrical and sharp like--"

"Like a butt plug from Hell," Con finishes her thought. 

Crow flattens their lips. "Sherrif, you can't just say these things--"

"That or just a plain and simple jumbo-sized thumbtack," she smirks at Con. "This could have been executed with an immense amount of force, though, if a character was given a temporary buff like vampire powers."

"Not vampires," Crow and I say in unison.

"Crow, you said you stepped away to go get more fuel, right?" Minty inquires, they nod. "So you had to leave and come back which would give you the opportunity to kill Runky. You know, that jerry can have a rather narrow nozzle, wouldn't you say?"

"But here's the thing," Crow chuckles as they put their hands together and points them both at Minty while dipping their head, "I didn't kill Runky."

"This entire case is a mess, but I'd like to present a mere observation," I interject.

Cole curls her hair on her finger. "Hypotheticals. Okay, shoot."

"Not a hypothetical, a fact," I sigh, Uni and Crow giving me hopeful eyes. "While we were all compiled in Medbay, it was clear that Runky's body made a really bad smell. Something about the creatures we found inside carried a horrendous odor. Everyone was able to smell it, and everyone had a reaction to it. All but two people."

"I already know what you're going to say, Morbid," Cole stops me and touches the plant leaves on her helmet. "I lost my sense of smell at a young age."

"She's right," Ten says.

"Then that clears you," I quickly amend, not wanting to have a repeat of the last time I accused her. "Battery, why didn't you react to the smell? Almost as though you've smelled it before and gotten used to it."

She points to herself. "I-- Con wasn't there either. Uni and Crow didn't have a reaction to it."

"They did, I saw it with my own shitty peepers," Ten mystifies as she points to her eyes. "And Con also emptied the trash chute, didn't he? One of the guidelines: _Something something_ 'Do your fucking tasks for the love of God,' right?"

"Absolutely," Minty agrees.

My eyes widen. "And Con and I saw Crow doing Asteroids before we found Po with Minty. Crow can't be an Imposter, they did work."

"Oh thank goodness," Crow sighs relief.

"Plus," Cole stacks, "we never considered someone stealing the knife and using it to frame these two, especially Uni. Uni, I think I remember seeing you do Asteroids once with Nakii, too."

"Battery?" Minty calls on her. "It's also well within our purview to put all of our cards on the table that you stepped away outside of Electrical for a moment. We didn't think much of it, of course, but now things are looking dire."

"I wouldn't have been able to make it there and back with the lights off, now would I?" She asks.

"Not unless you went vent-hopping," Cole stares at her, her voice stiff. "Those things really cutdown on traffic. It's like a backroad in Texas, just go ninety miles per hour while making that turn, and your destination will be on the left in half the time that your GPS estimated."

Battery swallows hard, betrayal in her eyes. "C-Cole... You really don't think it's me, do you?"

"If the shoe fits."

She scoffs. "That's ridiculous! Why would I subject Triple-A to that sorta thing?" I see Triple-A turn around from the window and start approaching behind his mom. "Crawling into vents and murdering people... Who would I ever expose a child to that like our resident cretin Ten?"

"Bitch, I will personally restructure your face," Ten threatens. "Don't question my parenting, Jimothy's just built different."

Battery grits her teeth. "Seriously, crawling through vents?"

"Yeah, Mommy, remember? That was fun!" Triple-A notes. Battery's face drops. "Meep went with us and you told me to hide under the grate."

Battery slowly turns to her kid. "AAA, what are you talking about?"

"When we were playing peekaboo in the camera room."

She gets on one knee and looks her son in the eyes. "No... That was Meep. Meep did that."

"It's always the nice ones," Ten exults. "Case solved. Vote Battery for student council president and all that shit."

"No!" Battery shouts and stands up. "That wasn't me! That was Meep. Triple-A, tell the truth."

"I am," he says. "You always tell me to tell the truth, Mommy. We were crawling in the metal tunnel and you said we were gonna scare Po as a joke."

Her eye twitches as her face stiffens with the rage of a mother. Ten wipes coal from her eyes. "Aw, yup. I even said it would've had to have taken two people to hold Po down. I'm not gonna miss you, I really fucking _despised_ your goody two-shoes act. Look where that got you, _Dummkopf."_

Battery pulls out her gun and points it at her kid, hands shaking. I pull my gun along with Minty and Ten who still possesses Crow's gun. I start to move around the table, still trained on her. "Battery, you don't want to do this."

"Mommy, you're scaring me," Triple-A cowers away and starts to step away from her.

"This child is a menace," she whispers as she advances toward him. "I'm telling you, this little bastard is the true Imposter out of the both of us. He's the one who suggested we use the wires to make Po suffer instead of just breaking her neck. This little bastard was the one who developed the sabotage software. This little bastard... _This little bastard."_

"Mommy," he starts to sob, "you're scaring me, Mommy, stop it!"

"Shh, Mommy is talking!" She screams at him. He cries harder. "I said shut the hell up, you monster!"

"I'm not a monster," he laments. 

She laughs hysterically, borderline breaking down into a full episode. _"That's exactly what you are."_

His stomach opens up as his suit rips open. I train my gun at him, not knowing who's more of a threat. Con, Cole, and Minty put on their helmets, Con yelling at everyone in the room. "Get the kids to Admin, this is where the party starts. Ladies and pals, put y'alls seatbelts on!"

I pull my helmet over my head and commence the lock, turning back to see Battery hoisted off of her feet. I shudder, running over to the other kids and putting their helmets on before basking in the terror of Triple-A suspending his mother in the air with a snake-like point driven through her chest. Blood drips off of the point and runs down the mass into the boy's stomach. Battery spurts blood from her mouth. "I wa-- I was pro-pr-protect-protecting all of you fro-f-from him."

"Yeah, that's the murder weapon, all right," Ten nervously says. I usher the kids around and pull them into Admin.

"You three need to stay here, okay?" I say as I have them hide behind the communication terminal. "Stay here."

"Is Triple-A okay, Mama?" Mundy asks.

I flip her visor down. "I'm going to go check. Don't move, please."

I run back into the Cafeteria, Battery lying in a pool of her blood. Her eyes are fixed on me as I walk around the room. They follow me. Everyone looks at the ceiling, speechless and petrified. Con stands by the Cafeteria terminal, pointing above me. I turn and back up to look up, a bulging and pulsating lump breaking in from the ceiling. I pull out my gun. "What in the SKELD is that?"

I hear a gun cock. Battery holds her gun, aimed at Triple-A. I'm quick on the draw and shoot Battery twice, jumping and dropping my gun as the ship rumbles and Meep comes shooting out of the vent. I've never seen anything so raw and overgrown. Nothing looks human about them, not a semblance of what used to be. A wad of suffering and abuse simply _exists_ in front of us, scabbing runs over every inch of itself as pustules ooze. How do I even know that that thing used to be Meep? I don't.

"Hold onto something!" Con yells. I back up and run to the tables, wrapping my arm around a seat as the doors slam shut. The sabotage alarm blares, lights shut off, and all we're left with the flashing red of the crisis alert.

_**"Ejection process underway. Airlock opening and to be held open for ten seconds."** _

The shutters fall over the window before opening again. I grip the chair of the table as the ship tips with the sudden loss of air in the hold. Meep's caterwaul is only heard for a second before they're pulled out into the vacuum and left in our wake. Battery I know for sure is already gone. The crimson crisis light flashes as I watch a body flail by. I look down below me and Watch Uni fall out of the ship. My eyes widen. My lungs feel like they're made of cement. She couldn't have. We did not just lose Uni. Crow bumps me, and I shoot my hand out, catching their ankle. I try to grip them as tight as I can, but it wasn't good enough. They slip out of my grasp, and I don't even give it a second thought before letting go of the bench to go and catch them. We can't lose them both, we need them, we can't. We just can't.

I'm caught by my oxygen pack, and I wriggle around to get released, but it's too late. The shutters close and the ship turns.

_**"Ejection process complete. Recalibrating gravity shift."** _

We lay on the floor as the ship turns. I turn to see Cole have a grip on my oxygen tube. She lets go and lays down on the floor, panting. I run to the window as the shutter lifts and plaster my hands to the glass. I can still see them. "We have to rescue Crow and Uni!" I feel my heart rip to shreds as Meep grows in size and consumes them both before going completely limp themself. I curl my fingers and hit my helmet on the glass. "No, no, no, no."

"Morbid-" Minty shudders. I turn to her as she points to Triple-A at my side. He stands unphased at the window with me as boredom graces his face. How. How is he still alive? The worst part of it all, he's waving. He's waving goodbye to his mother that he'll never be able to bury or see again. Uni, Crow, Meep, and Battery. We'll never see them again.


	11. Eleven: Dumpster Dive, Nature Walk, and Hey! Long Time, No See

I come back. Looking around, I’m staring out of the window in the Cafeteria. Or, rather, what looks like the Cafeteria. Something’s not right about this place. My gun is still in my satchel it’s the first thing I checked. Where am I?

"He can't stay here," Minty whispers from afar. "He killed his mother."

"She was going to kill him first," Ten quietly opposes. I stand up and hobble over to where their voices are. Ten sees me come in, quickly dismissing my presence. “Oh, hey, Morbid.”

“Hi,” I groans. “Where--”

"Maybe with good reason," Minty counters. "That child is I-don't-know-what, and we could possibly be his next victims. Morbid, do you really want that thing near Mundy?"

“Where even is Mundy?”

“With Con,” Ten says. “But just answer Minty’s stupid question.”

She points to Triple-A who calmly sits on a bed. This isn’t Medbay, but it is at the same time. Not the Medbay I know. Battery didn't want anyone to be alienated, as backward as that may seem now. He’s just a kid, and he didn’t know what he was doing. "He's no longer in a hostile environment, _right_ guys? Battery can't do anything to him now. According to her, he's the one who's an Imposter, but she didn't do much to stop him. If anything, she was facilitating that behavior out of him. What if... We gave him a bit of nurtur--"

"No, absolutely not!" Minty speaks over me. "Morbid, you may dying, but we aren't."

"Presumably," Ten adds.

"Whatever the case may be, trying to tame that little demon will be the death of us." Minty's hard-nosed for having Triple-A be dealt with, but I highly doubt she's heartless enough to surrender him to the cold unknown. 

"Fine," I sigh. "I'll try to talk to him. You don't have to interact with him, but he's my responsibility now. Should anything happen with him, you can throw me right out of the airlock with him."

"You're sick and irrational," Minty scoffs. 

"It means that we care." I glare at Minty. "Besides, we're running out of options, Minty. Cole's the Imposter, the final piece to the puzzle. Con doesn't know, so that's why he's still alive right now."

_“Presumably,”_ Minty sarcastically says. “I’m sure he’s figured it out now. He went off with Cole to put our plan into effect.” She fluffs her bangs under her hat. “I think it’s pretty clear Cole is going to sabotage this.”

I smile at her and blink my eyes. “Aw, really? I would have never guessed that!” Dropping my sass, I cross my arms. “Then _fucking stop her_ , how about that?”

“Like I’m not already thinking about it”

“You’re being of no help with that attitude, Minty.”

She grabs me by the collar and throws me up against the wall, staring into my eyes with hers widened by anger. “Haven’t I been helpful, Morbid?” She grunts as she reinforces me against the wall. “Huh, Morbid?! _Haven’t I?!”_

Ten stands up. “Hey, cool it bitch!”

“I have been instrumental in the investigations and apprehension of suspects, please do tell me that I haven’t been helpful in the slightest, Morbid.” She stares death into me, desperation in the black sclera of her spotted eyes. “Go on ahead, tell me that I was a useless hunk of meat on this endeavor.”

_“‘You’ve been a useless hunk of meat on this endeavor,’_ now get off of me,” I push her away.

She purses her lips, not getting the answer she wanted from me. “I still think this plan is absurd."

"Absurdity is just unrefined genius." She crosses her arms. “Minty, I’m sorry, you’ve been very very helpful. Stress is high, we can’t be divided right now.” We make eye contact, and she nods at me. I take a deep breath before walking over to Triple-A, kneeling down to him. "Hey, buddy."

"Hi, Ms. Morbid," he smiles at me. 

"How are you doing?"

"I'm... I dunno," he shrugs. "I know I did a bad thing."

Minty scoffs. I brush my hair behind my ear. "Yes, you did do a bad thing. You can make it up, though."

"How?" He tilts his head. I feel shitty for manipulating a child, but we're out of time. This is life or death for the rest of the crew. I'm already dying, what with the severity of my head injury. I do really think Triple-A is a good kid. Just slightly mislead. 

"Ten and I need your help with something. Do you know who It is?" He nods and scratches his head. "Do you think you can lead us to It?" He nods again. "You can?"

"Yeah, Mommy took me one time to go see It. She said that we had to do everything It said."

"Triple-A, was your mommy able to do that, too?" 

"Do what?"

I point to the rip in his suit. "Could she open her belly like that?" He nods his head.

"She's the one who showed me. Do you wanna see it?" I look back at Ten, and she sets Jimothy down to stand up, grabbing some tools on a tray and rolling her chair over to me. 

Con, Cole, and Scout walk into Medbay to check in on us. I have to get them caught up, but only on what we want them to know. If Crow's story from just a couple of weeks ago holds any water, it's best that we go down with the ship. Our ultimatum. The final destination. Ten pats my shoulder and flicks her head to the side to let me know that she can handle her examination of him with Minty waiting in the wings with a gun. "Triple-A, are you okay with Ms. Ten looking you over? She just wants to make sure your mommy didn't hurt you, okay?"

"Okay," he reluctantly agrees.

"Can you take off your suit for me?" Ten asks. He stands and shimmies it off, left in the basic muscle shirt and black shorts for suit undergarments. His white shirt is sullied, and blotches of gore are stuck to his skin. He lifts his shirt up, a wet garbling emanating as teeth slide out of his skin. He winces with effort as he forces the mouth open, the beast growling as though it's hungry. Tentacles slowly poke out of the void and seem to be seeking something out. I move away and step over to Con and Cole. "What’s going on?"

"Nothing?" Con looks over to Triple-A. "Kinda gnarly, huh?"

"Very, but it's what we've got to work with. Or… Even how we got here?"

Con furrows his brows. “What?”

“We’re not on the SKELD anymore.”

Cole lifts her eyebrows. “ _Anyway!_ We just need Minty to help out. I don't know much about Communications since that was Nakii's thing, but I know enough. We need the hands in Admin while I'm down in Communications."

"I see. The last thing I remember was… The airlock.” I look at my feet. “You can leave Scout with us, we'll just be running tests all day."

"Sounds like a plan. Uh, scream if you need anything," Con shrugs. He skedaddles with Minty and Cole, the three of them on their way to set up our scheme. It has to end this way. There's no dancing around it. I turn to Ten and nod as she sets her tools aside. 

"You can close up now, Triple-A, you did good," she smiles as the tentacles retract and his stomach closes up. "Fascinating doesn't even begin to describe what we have on our hands here."

"Well, it's going to get more 'fascinating,'" I say. "Ten, you get him cleaned up. We'll wait outside." I beckon Jimothy, Scout, and Mundy to my side and walk them outside of Medbay, getting onto my knees to talk to them. "Ten, Triple-A, and I have to go somewhere super quick. We'll be gone for a little bit, but we'll be back soon. Stay in Medbay, don't anywhere. Got it?"

"Where are you going?" Mundy asks.

"To see a friend."

"Can we see him, too?" Scout asks.

"Mmm, I don't think you wanna meet them. They're a little mean to kids."

"Then why does Triple-A get to go?" Jimothy crosses his arms. 

"Triple-A knows the way there. He's just going to show us how to get there. That's all." They don't seem too happy with the turn of events, and I'm not either. I tap Mundy's nose and pat Jimothy on the head as we walk back in. Ten holds hedge clippers in one hand and Crow's gun in the other. She hands it off to me, and it goes into my satchel.

"Ready?" Ten adjusts her goggles over her eyes. 

I clip the strap of my helmet under my head. "Doesn't matter if I'm ready, ain't nothing to it but to do it." I walk over to the vent and get onto one knee to open the hatch, the hinges squeaking as I rest it on the floor. I look down into the great dark abyss before back up at Ten. "You've been a lovely person to work with Ten."

"Quit the sappy shit, we're not gonna die in there," she differs as she closes the blades and turns the lock to keep them closed, nestling it in between her back and oxygen tank. 

Triple-A crawls in unhindered and calls us in. Ten goes first. I shiver and shed my insecurity. I'm doing this for Mundy. I go in feet first and awkwardly nestle myself into the crawling space, reorienting to Ten and Triple-A's quieted voices lower down the tunnel. I reach up and pull the vent closed should anyone come in looking for us. Army crawling is something I haven't had to do in a long time, but the upside has the bare minimum requirements of not being covered in mud and not having electrified barbed wire hanging over me.

The vents are cold, drafts of wind blowing through and chilling my nose and ears. Ten's oxygen tank clanks against the metal ceiling every once and a while which could give us away if it wanted. I don't know where we are on the SKELD, and I haven't heard any voices to give us a general clue. Ten slows down, and I stop behind her, seeing a silver of Triple-A's body disappear into a vent on the floor of the vent. This keeps getting more and more ridiculous with each newly added level. 

Ten makes almost a K-turn to land on her feet on her way down, helping me when I ask for it since I'm an inch shorter than her. We're both pretty small to begin with, but it was still helpful. I grunt as I land and rub the underside of my head where the buckle is, looking around. Lights blink red as if to be emergency lights, machines whirring off in the distance. It got really hot all of a sudden and my suit runs cold to counteract it. We're in a narrow hallway that curves, leading somewhere down both ways. Crouching, I pick up a light blue baseball hat. If this is here...

"Morbid, what is that?"

I put the brim of the hat in between my satchel and my hip. "Hopefully a good sign."

Triple-A hums and looks down both ways as if he's about to cross the street and points down one. "It's over here."

Asking him if he's sure would probably result in a parasite spike through the forehead. Ten and I both take out our weapons and nod at each other, following behind the small kid. My footsteps are sticky, and I'm growing an emotion that's right below 'worry' but much much higher up than 'damned,' despite us being just that. The metal creaks and the ship moans, the halls becoming tighter as we pass a maintenance threshold.

Ten accidentally kicks a pair of glasses and ends up stepping on them when she stumbles. Those are also menacingly familiar. The metal on the wall bursts, tentacles shooting out of peeled metal and trying to grab at me. I back up into Ten, raising my gun until she stops me. "It's not real! Calm down, nothing's there." She pushes me through, and I flinch every time one of them lunges at me, unsure if it'd hurt at the last moment. I don't think anyone's been down here in ages, a panel and decontamination unit trashed with a PDA still stuck into it. I put my gun away and rest my hand on the top of the box, gripping the device with my thumb and index finger. I grit my teeth and stumble back a couple of steps as I successfully pull it out intact. Ten carries the same question I do. "What are you gonna do with it?"

I hum. "Well, I don't know. It looked useful. Maybe we can find out some information about all of this. A cure is a stretch."

Ten lifts her brows and cocks her head to the side. "Good enough for me." He looks past me and nudges me aside, pulling a plague doctor mask out from behind the pipes it was lodged behind. "Oh-no..." She holds it before gently setting it down. She frowns. We keep walking.

Triple-A is a calm kid. I'd thought by now, he'd try to strike up a creepily light-hearted conversation about the situation, but I guess he's not one for banter. Hair starts to plaster itself to my forehead, and now my footsteps have gotten audibly sticky, the adhesive peeling from the underside of my boot with each step. Pipes run along the walls, the red emergency lights stay on now unless the faulty wiring causes some of them to flicker. Triple-A steps through a door that would have a valve hatch, the kinds found on the interiors of ships to keep water out. Or, in our case, some _thing._ The valve was facing us as we passed through, meaning someone from a previous mission probably unleashed whatever the hell is down here. It gets darker, but Triple-A glows in the dark like Meep did. He just keeps walking like everything's fine.

"Morbid." Ten puts her hand on my shoulder and looks down. I follow her line of sight. A vein pulses on the floor and starts in the middle of our feet, sprouting out of the compromised titanium and running down the hall. Turning on my PDA flashlight, I look at the walls and ceiling, the tubes pumping something through them. When we stare, I can almost hear a heartbeat. 

_Thrum._

_Thrum._

_Thrum._

It's not human. Oh, is It ever not human. It's more pulsating than anything. I step around It and something squishes under my foot. Shining my light over, it's the garbled up remains of... A creature that was living once. Closely resembles something that was pre-chewed and then spat up before swallowing, mangled and bloodied like a ridiculously raw steak. I grab onto Ten's arm when she offers it for support and scrape the sole on one of the pipes on the wall, sure I got most of It off before continuing on. The ceiling gets lower, but that affects neither Ten nor I as we're no taller than three inches over five feet. I'm the shorter one out of the two of us, an accomplishment being that I'm five-one to begin with. The path does get narrower, though, and it's a tight squeeze space to get past that Triple-A gets through without hindrance. I get by with a lot of shimmying and suit snagging, Ten having to remove her oxygen tank before continuing.

The pulsating grows louder, feeling it inside my chest. 

**_Thrum._ **

**_Thrum._ **

**_Thrum._ **

"What was the word Con used?" I shakily exhale as I look ahead. Ten hums curiously from my statement as she remounts her oxygen tank. _"'Gnarly?'"_

"Morbid, what--" Ten gasps and unlocks her hedge clippers. "Gnarly and fascinating, add fuckin’ _weird_ to the list."

"We're here," Triple-A points out, standing a few feet in front of the both of us. "This is It."

It. It is a broken confinement chamber near the Reactor Cores that was meant to use nuclear radiation as a containment measure. The throbbing is coming from the broken container, pumping out something from the reservoir of alien gunk that resides in it. I step over more veins and tentacles as I stand by Triple-A. "What is It?"

"It," he responds. "It is It." I take a few steps in front of him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, you'll wake It up."

I widen my eyes and nod as I back up. "Right, don't wanna rouse It from Its nap."

I feel something tap the top of my helmet, and I glance at Ten who hasn't moved an inch. She shines her flashlight up at the ceiling. "Morbid, they're here."

My eyes shoot up, and I feel like I shrunk to the size of an atom. Somewhere between spider webs and the Indian Swiftlet bird nests made from saliva. Bodies strung up like party favors and tangled in the fray. Some are hung by their ankles, others by under their arms, some even looped around the waist and folded like a piece of paper. I shudder, hugging myself. I know some of these people. "D-Dabblr?"

"That's Callum," Ten dejectedly confirms. "That's for sure Callum. God, I loved that crazy son of a bitch. Used to catch possums with his bare hands, call himself Guts, run around the compound with the mask on, and collect the skeletons of roadkill. Called it Vulture Culture, and he was going to show me how he did it when he got back. Jimothy's going to be devastated."

"Mia," I list, "Snellopy, Rylli..." Lime, Blue, Pink. Mia's hat is gone. I don't even remember what it was. Inconsiderate. Snellopy's glasses in the hallways should've been a sign. Rylli even still has her flower headband on. That's--" I sigh and look down to my feet with the baseball hat in my hands, closing my tear-laden eyes to erase what I saw. "That was my wing mentor back home." I chuckle, melancholy surging through my capillaries. "This belonged to him. Would only use the word _swag_ to describe it. He only ever told us his name started with a G, so we called him Mr. G. He was an astrophysicist, liked geometry the most. A weird, _weird_ guy, but he cared. He cared. And there he is. Up there. I'm down here. Not much I can do about it, now, can I?"

"I found Po and Nakii," Ten notes. "There's no way to efficiently get them down unless we had access to a lift or something. I don't exactly think you're one to use your peashooter as a slingshot anyway."

"And you'd be correct," I squint as I look back up. Bodies gently sway as they hang by a mere hair. Chittering echoes from above, scampering following as I watch Snellopy's mouth open slightly and see an antenna ever so casually slip out from his throat. It probes around and grows longer as it's getting closer and closer to me on the ground. I stay still, unsure if it can detect movement and hold my breath so I don't breathe on it. Its tendrils wiggle in slow waves as though that's how it gets around, slithering like a sea krait in water. 

"Don't move too fast," Triple-A hushes with a finger over his lips. "It is hungry."

"Ten," I gasp. _"Help me."_

 _"Just go around slowly,"_ she cautiously ventures. I slowly drag my foot back on the toe, but she stops me with her hands out. _"Nevermind, nevermind, just stand still, there's more of them behind you."_

I bring my foot back in and sluggishly pull out my gun when I replace Mr. G's hat, tensing up and grunting quietly with my eyes closed when the hammer clicks as I reload it. Slitting my eyes to see, the antenna slowly retracts back up to the ceiling. Ten stretches her mouth as she nervously bares her teeth, grabbing Triple-A's arm and pulling him away before he's crushed by the bodies plummeting from their perch. I jump but stay composed enough to refrain from making audible noises. Panic sets in. Their suits are covered in the flaky but gooey threading that was suspending them in the air. Light reflects off of Mr. G's cyan Wing-Eleven tracksuit, the same as Mia. I flatten my lips, sure that I have to be making this up. 

The bodies stir, and I lift my gun, anxiety pumping adrenaline through my heart as it beats faster. My hands are shaky, and I shiver through my teeth. Bones crack and shift back into place as they stand up. Whimpers escape me, dread widens my eyes, and fear paralyzes me as Rylli looks at me. Their eyes are dead, cloudy, and lazy. They're facing me, but they're not looking at me. My breaths become heavy, small noises of protest slipping past my lips as if I was going to say something to them. I slowly turn to Ten, hedge clippers raised as Callum lays on the floor and stares directly up at her. I swallow hard, meekness in my tone. We haven’t been down here for long, but I’d be super lucky if it’s somehow past five. _"Ten, what time is it?"_

"Oi, mate," Snellopy rasps in his Australian accent. "It's a touch past Arvo."

I gasp, dumbfounded. "You're dead," I try to reason. "You shouldn't be able to talk, yo-you're dead."

"What do you mean?" Rylli giggles as they throw their arms around me from behind. "We're not dead, Morbid."

Mia piles onto me, grabbing me by the face and pulling me closer to her. "We never died Morbid, we can all go home together!"

"You're dead!" I yell, struggling in their grasp. "St-Stop it! Get off of me, _you're dead!"_

"Aw, mate, don't you want us home with you?" Snellopy puts his head next to Mia's, the antenna inching out of his mouth and latching onto his chin, his cheek skin tearing as more tendrils try to shove their way out of his throat, pushing through his esophagus and shrouding him like a poncho. I struggle more.

"Morbid," Mr. G calls me and stands next to me, taking his hat from my waist and putting it on his head backward, "don't you want us to go home?"

I feel tears run down my cheek. "Not like this."

He grabs my gun and fires it into the ceiling, shooting Dabblr down as her rigor-set body crunches as it lands. He paces in a circle and yells to the ceiling. _"Take us home, Morbid."_

Mia and Rylli shake me and tighten their grip on me. "N-No. You're not them." I get jostled again, and I groan as I throw my head back and bash in Rylli's face with my helmet. I punch Mia off of me and back up as Mr. G and Snellopy advance toward me. "You're not them."

"Of course I'm me, Morbid," Mr. G tries to reason, giving me a blank smile with his eyes missing. "Who else would I be if I wasn't Mr. G?"

I shake my head. "Shut up, you're not him."

A claw violently unearths through his forehead and busts out from the front of his face, cerebral fluid and brain smoothie flowing out of the hole where his nose would've been. Worms shoot out from his eye socket and splurge onto me. I lift my arms and look down at my suit, the grubs latching onto me like leeches and trying to burrow into my suit as though it's chiggers on skin. My face twists as Mr. G grabs onto my shoulder.

I go on what feels like auto-pilot as I ram into Mr. G with my shoulder and scramble for my gun, getting out of there without having to engage. The ship wails, gurgling coming from the containment tube. I shake my head and grab onto Ten's arm, pulling her along as I throw myself through the passageway.

"You woke It up!" Triple-A scolds as I scoop him up into my arms since he can't keep up with us. 

"I know, I'm sorry! How do we get It to go back to sleep?" 

"You can't, It has to get tired first," he explains. I hear howling behind us, and I don't even bother to look behind me in case it's another oxygen tank ready to clock me like it's leaving a nine-to-five office job. Triple-A looks behind be. "You should run faster Ms. Morbid."

My steps elongate, and I hear the feet behind me like a pack of wild dogs. I get slammed into the wall as an oxygen tank ricochets off of my helmet, making me lose my footing. "Morbid!" Ten stops further up the hall turns around to come to my aid. I take my gun and reload, nailing Rylli in the forehead before pulling the trigger as I'm aimed at Callum. My gun clicks.

"Shit!" Reaching for my helmet, my fingers fumble with the band, and bullets slip out. I shakily get one loaded into my magazine and grimace as my hand vibrates when I raise my weapon. Callum jumps at me, and we wrestle with each other as I attempt to throw him off of me. The gun pops when I angle the barrel at his chest. Kicking him off, I toss my gun, it's worthless to me now at this point. Ten runs past me as I pick up Triple-A. She swings upwards with her blades and slashes Snellopy across the abdomen, the alien poncho shriveling and causing him to tap out. Ten separates the handles and comes for Mr. G with swiftness and anger. She pins him to the wall with her blades encasing his neck and slamming them shut. He reaches for her, so she pries off her weapon and drives it up into his cavity through his gut. Blood spurts onto her face as he gleeks her with it before rattling defeat.

The stomach monster makes a steller return from Triple-A's stomach as his suit open again and grabs a hold of her around the waist, squeezing until he's sliced her in half. Slowly rising to my feet showcases how dehydrated I am as psychedelic patterns of nonsense and iron deficiency dance on my eyes. Ten grumbles as she runs her fingers over her eyes and turns to me with her blood-splattered face. 

"I ripped my suit again," Triple-A informs. "Sorry."

"It's okay," I excuse, "we can get you another one. It won't matter by the end of the day."


	12. Twelve: Cons of Teams More than Ten, so Find Us in Morbidly Mint Condition

I grunt and push up on the vent, seeing Mundy peer her head over. "Hey, Mundy, baby. Can you open this?" She and Scout grunt and fall to the floor when they pop the vent open. Ten gives me a shove, and I claw my way out of the vent. I look down and pivot my hips. "Okay, now I know what Cole goes through when she tries to pull herself out."

"There you are!" Con whispers as he extends his arms. I grab onto him and grunt as he pulls me out, then helping Ten when I grab her bloodied hedge clippers. I help Triple-A out and hold him in my arms, getting some blood on my suit. "What did you guys see?"

"Old friends," I huff. "We've gotta get out of here."

"Everything's pretty much set up. We just need to lure Cole into the Cafeteria."

"I can do that," Ten volunteers. 

"Ten, no, let me do it," I try to argue with her, but she interrupts me. 

"Morbid, go get your oxygen tank," she sighs. "I know it won't do us any good, but go get it." She furrows her brows and walks over to the bed where Jimothy sits and sits next to him, bringing him into a tight hug. Con takes Scout and hugs him, too, giving him a kiss on the forehead. I hug Triple-A closer to me and beckon Mundy as she hugs my leg. Ten presses her lips and eyelids shut, burying her blood-speckled face into the crook of Jimothy's shoulder. Con takes off his hat and puts it on Scout's head, not saying much but letting Scout knows that he loves him. Ten sets Jimothy down on his feet. "Go, Morbid."

I hold Mundy's hand as I still have Triple-A on my hip, Scout and Jimothy following after me. I stand on the lift and wait for the purple and blue kids to get on with me before going down. The shaft feels cold and desolate. This'll be my last time going down, I know it for sure. Once we're at the bottom, I take the four of them to one of the pods and set Triple-A down as I grab undergarments from Battery's locker and find a new suit for him. After I shove him into the bathroom, I lift the three of them up to Crow's bed. Mundy frowns as she looks at me. "Mama, what's going on?"

"Ah, well," I shrug as I look up at her. "I'm not too sure myself."

"Why was Mommy sad?" Jimothy asks. 

"She just loves you a lot, Jimothy. Like how your papa loves you, Scout, and how I love you so much, Mundy," I chime in as joyous of a tone I can muster. 

"What are we doing down here? It's not bedtime, Ms. Morbid," Scout runs his hands down his cheeks. "It's boring down here, I don't like it."

"I know, Scout. We just need you guys to wait here while we go and take care of some things. I'll be back soon to come get you," I lie, knowing that this is the last time I'll see Mundy. I bend my hands to motion for Mundy to lean over to me, and I kiss her on the cheek as she gives me a kiss on the forehead before I hug her. Triple-A comes out of the bathroom, and I pull him aside to talk in private in a whisper. "Triple-A, you know what's going to happen to you, right?"

He nods. "I'll be okay."

I take a deep breath and hug him, and he hugs me back. "Can I ask you a favor?"

"What is it?"

"Can you protect your friends if Cole or It comes?"

"Yeah," he agrees. "I can do that."

"Okay, thank you, Triple-A," I smile at him as I pat his shoulders. "Just know that your mama loved you lots."

"I know," he says. "Mommy said it all the time, so I know."

After I lift him up into the pod, I close the curtain. I can't say goodbye. That's too hard for me to do. If I say goodbye, then I'm admitting defeat. Defeat that would ultimately be a win in the long run. I grab my oxygen tank and helmet from the Resupply Rack. Getting back on the lift, I look up and see Con and Minty exiting Admin, both walking toward me. Minty holds her hands out. "Your PDA."

"What about it?" 

"Give it to me," she insists. "I need your PDA, it's the last one." I pat my chest, my PDA missing. "Morbid don't tell me..."

I check my satchel pulling out the PDA I pulled from the vents. "It's not mine, but it should work."

"What do you mean it's not yours?" Con inquires, confused. I see caterpillars crawl around under his skin, and he scratches right on top of it. "Who's PDA is that?"

"A crew member from a different mission." I turn it on, the screen having trouble with displaying formation. "This is... DoodleBees from mission Simon-Twelve. She wrote crew notes."

"What do they say?"

I scroll, gentle with the screen so I don't break the device. _"'It's already inside, you may as well die.'"_

"Lovely," Minty digresses as she takes the device from me. "Final touches to commence contingency, stay here."

She runs back to Admin by herself, and I turn to Con, swaying back and forth on my heels as I unclip my helmet. "Con, are we going to die?"

He exhales as he looks to the ground. "No matter how you look at it, yes. This is the only way, Morbid." He scratches the bugs under his skin again, a red blister forming on his chin until it bursts with brown, sludgy pus and a centipede crawls out and down his neck into his suit. He's unbothered by it. Minty speed-walks around the corner and stands behind me, Con crossing his arms. "They should've been back by now."

"Cole's a handful, so she's probably being difficult intentionally," I say. "I'll go get her."

"No need to!" Cole triumphantly announces as she drags Ten in by the foot, leisurely making her way into the room. Minty draws her gun and points it at Cole with her finger ready on the trigger. "Whoa, hey! She's not dead. Yet."

"What did you do to her?" I ask.

_"Nothing!"_ Cole reinforces as though we're all joking about, but her face drops like a hat. "Yet." She drops her leg and stands, arms akimbo. "Go ahead, press the button. Might as well make our last moments together official." Con reaches behind him, but she makes noises to stop him. "Uh-uh, I want Morbid to do it. For antagonistic self-righteous reasons. I still have an ego status quo to fulfill, y'know." 

My bottom lip pushes upward, as I glare at her. So be it. I turn and slam the button with my fist.

_**"Emergency Meeting initiated. Immediately cease all tasks and activities and head to the Cafeteria for a rendezvous."** _

Cole waltzes over to the side of the table as Con and I go to help Ten, only to find that she's dead from a snapped neck. Cole chuckles. "Whoops, I lied." We reconvene at the table, Minty and Con on either side of me as we look across at Cole by herself. "Three on one hardly seems fair."

"Why are you doing this, Cole?" I ask. "Why is _It_ doing this?"

"It would take too long to explain why It wants me to do this, and I personally have no interest in Its motives. I mean, c'mon, dude, the fuck do I look like, a history book? So why am _I_ doing it?"

"Yes," I sigh. "Why are _you_ doing this?"

"Cuz I wanna," she shrugs with a smile. "That's really it. I just want to. Causing chaos is enough of a reward, but in _space_ where we all knew we were going to die to begin with that's offset by the false hope of being the special one? That's where the real satisfaction hits." She smirks when I squint at her. "You look so surprised as if this is a new development. Menace on a mission, Morbid, remember?"

"It just doesn't make sense," I huff. "It is what's controlling you, Cole, so what do you mean _you_ want it?"

"Because I'm Cole and I know what I want, duh!" She snickers and puts the tips of her gloved fingers to her lips. "Wow, you're getting kinda stupid, Morbid."

"And what is it that you what, Cole?" Minty questions.

Cole flicks her eyes up the cracked ceiling and puts her fingers to her chin as if she's really thinking hard about it, finally looking back down at us as a spike juts through her stomach and cracks the table in front of her with the force of its exit. "Death :)."

"Well, I wanna fucking leave here, but we don't always get what we want." Con argues as we back up. 

"But I do," she snarls. Minty shoots her three times in the head before her bullets run out, grunting and picking the remaining bullet off of my hat to use it. Con turns around to go and make a break for Medbay to hopefully get to anything as a weapon. The doors shut, and Cole steps onto the table. "We're here, gamers, we've made it!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" I stand by the wiring panel. 

"The finale," Cole laughs, holding her hands out and laughing at the tentacle in the ceiling. "All of your hard work was for nothing in the end! Everyone's dead! They're _all **dead,**_ and there's nothing you could have done about it! The perfect Imposter, that's who _I_ was. _I_ killed Nakii, _I_ killed Runky--"

_"She's off her rocker,"_ Minty whispers as she pulls Con to her. "Go, now."

_"The fuck you mean, she's gonna merk me!"_ Con uses both of his hands to motion toward the crazy woman cackling while standing on a table.

"She's in a state of hyper-inflated grandiose to marinate her god complex that's already lathered in superiority, Con, you'll go unnoticed," I support, gritting my teeth. 

"--And none of you suspected a _thing!_ At the end of the day, I could've pinned it all on Morbid since we did nothing but stay together the entire time, isn't that right, Morbid?" She calls upon me, and I ball my fists as I watch Con cautiously walk backward to the trash chute terminal. "I just had my accomplice do all of the dirty work like corroborate my story! Imagine if you all listened to her during our first meeting, then we probably wouldn't be standing here since you'd have then gotten rid of the biggest threat in the room, how about that? Huh?"

We don't answer her and all worriedly watch her as the front side of her face bursts from the emergence of teeth and a large tongue flops out in the center. She growls, spits at Minty, and takes steps forward to step down onto the floor again. Looking at Minty, a sharp projectile is embedded in her skull, her head pinned to the wall. My oxygen tank hits the metal door. She's advancing toward me. I step away from Minty's body, running to the window to take her in a circle since the doors haven't opened. The spike in her abdomen becomes gelatinous and moves like a snake, much like Triple-A's tentacle.

"Con, hurry up!" I yell.

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" He shouts back, Cole diverting her attention from me to Con. She clicks and roars, charging after him as he tries to fiddle with the panel faster, but she catches his foot with her tentacle and pulls him back to her. I take my oxygen and whack her over the head with it, no effect but a now angry parasite demon having its sights set on me. Backing up, I hear the vent creak open, Triple-A crawling out and challenging Cole by opening his stomach and baring his body teeth. 

"Triple-A, no, go back!" I deter him as I get my oxygen tank back on and pull on my helmet. "It's not safe, get out of here!"

He still drives his bioweapon through Cole's chest despite my warning, closing up shop afterward and retreating to the vent. Cole huffs and curdles nastiness onto me as she turns to me and shrieks, hands out and stumbling toward me with the spike sinking back into her skin. She rasps before she goes silent. I get to the Admin doors when I hear that blessed voice.

_**"Ejection process underway. Airlock opening and to be held open for ten seconds."** _

I salute Cole to be cheeky only for her to catch up to me and grab onto my shoulders, plunging her spike into me. I shudder, moving my hand down to my wound and panting as I lean over into her grasp, hanging my head and feeling the blood run up my throat. She pulls me closer into a hug, widening the gaping hole in my chest. She gurgles and gently pats my back. "I'm sorry."

Everything is quiet, and we go flying across the room, pulled out into the cold. It's dark. Cole still holds onto me as she thrashes around in the void, trying to breathe. I hug her back, feeling death creep in and fill my entire body. It's better to die together than alone. I don't know why I came aboard the SKELD. It was inevitable. We were going to die, and now we are doing that right now. I made friends, though, even if was in haste and fear. If we were back in our wings. I'm sure that Ten and I would be good friends. Cole would be my friend as well, I just know it. At the very least, I hope we would have. We die here together, and so may it be. 

My fingers grow weak, and I can't hold onto her anymore. Blood floats in my helmet. I can't see anything. Con, if you're out there, more power to ya bud. 

There isn't much more I can say. 

Nothing much more I can do. 

My lungs tighten, and I gasp for air. It's futile, my suit is compromised.

Such is how it ends. 

C'est la vie. 

C'est la vie.

_C'est la vie, c'est la guerre, c'est la pomme de terre._


	13. Epilogue

"This place gives me the creeps," she tells them again.

"We know, Mundy," Jimothy sighs. He scratches his nose as he looks around the Cafeteria. 

Scout puts his hands on his hips. "It's oddly familiar in here."

She shrugs. "I guess." She adjusts her green captain's hat with a black brim. "What are your first tasks?"

Scout takes out PDA and taps around on it. "Uh... Electrical. Hmm, hey, Mundy, this feels familiar."

"You said that before," she nods as she takes out her own PDA. "I also have to go down there."

"Me, too," Jimothy seconds. "I have to go divert electricity to O2 and then I'm going to go stay in... Medbay." His face twists. "Deja vu hits different, man."

"I don't know why," Mundy starts, "we've never been here before. Let's get going."

I follow the three of them, phasing through the wall in Storage to make it to Electrical before they do. Con, Ten, Triple-A, and Battery wait there already, and I sigh. "Not much we can do, is there?"

"No," Triple-A shakes his head. The lights turn off, and I walk through the breaker box to watch. Brown and Lime fix the panel together, Brown yelling at Lime to stop touching the switches. "Not after twenty years, Ms. Morbid. I'm sorry, I did what I could."

"It's okay, Triple-A," I forgive him. We failed as adults all that time ago.

"It just happens," Cole shrugs as she floats in from Security. "Like it just hits you like a bag of bricks. You don't really know where you get it from."

Mundy, Scout, and Jimothy walk in, Ten standing next to me with her arms crossed. "So, you're meaning to tell me--"

"They don't know," Triple-A shakes his head. Mundy tells Lime and Brown to stop arguing and pushes them aside to get to the panel. She stares at it for a while, Orange filtering in and asking what's taking so long. Con sighs and stands in the middle of the conflict, no one acknowledging his presence. Our three give each other a specific kind of glare, almost as though they can see each other in the dark. Mundy turns to her side and grabs onto Lime, snapping their neck and running right through me, popping into the vent on what looked like pure instinct. Scout and Jimothy follow suit with the murder and getaway, and I cover my mouth, Ten sniffing as she's about to cry. "Not until now."


	14. Special Thanks/ Wrap Up

Howdy hey, Morbid here!

Woof, what a ride, man.

It's over! PARASITIC is finally finished! I know my uploading schedule got screwed in the end there, but we made it. This was a wild ride, absolute chaos, especially with the fine, fine people who played characters for me- given that this fic is an ensemble made up of my friends!

Neuro, Constable, Crow, Cole, Rachel, Noelle, Meep, Minty, Uni, Lauren, and Battery, thank you for taking part in this and letting me kill you guys off in some horrid ways. 

I'd also like to thank the folks from my Discord server:

Callum, Mia, Rylli, DoodleBees, Uni, and Snellopy. You guys make being an admin fun, and I wouldn't trade you guys for the world :yeehawlove: :lovesgently: :lovesaggressively:

Last but not least, I'd like to thank- of all people- my Geometry teacher, Mr. Guerra who played Mr. G. He's a super cool guy and played Among Us with our class a couple of times if we had free time in class. Being Imposter with this man is like a train wreck that's being fueled by a Benzene fire, and I'm sorry I ratted you out one time since someone witnessed you kill, it had to be done. _Also, thank you for taking the time to read your student's **fanfiction,**_ _means a lot, bro. We ♥ 5th Period Geometry._

This book is now complete, and I hope you'll check out my other works on whichever platform you're seeing this on since I'm greedy and did three websites, each having an absurd amount of drafts saved on them.

Thank you for reading PARASITIC!

_\--Morbid/ Woeful Wordsmith_

* * *

Alternatively, if you'd like to reread, here's the PARASITIC playlist that I created which are the tunes I listened to while forming these scenes. [Here.](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/54hoPx4ZvcjVzDvkRI7V1D?si=bqWYpRLaQJ-pJRj4CAzaUA)

Track List:

 **Bruises** by Fox Stevenson

The Theme Song for PARASITIC. Really created the energy for a lot of scenes and Morbid and Cole's dynamic, namely the scene where Cole throws her oxygen tank to knock Morbid out.

 **Caffeine Rush** by Jacob Tillberg

Can be played at the end of each chapter as if it's the ending to a TV show. It feels melancholic and foreboding with the low piano but also frantic with the fast beat.

 **Dormant** by Darren Korb

Finding Po in Electrical and the discord between the crew as they argue during the trial, as well as the scene of Cole berating Morbid for trying to get her voted out.

 **Run You** by The Qemists

Voting out Meep and the fight scene following it, as well as the scene of the crew coming together and trying to burn Meep to a crisp in hopes of killing them.

 **Taste** by Great Gable

The crew crying together in the barracks, wishing the nightmare would end and longing to return home to the lives they knew before. They know that this is impossible.

 **Can You Feel My Heart** cover by Varien and Andrew Zink

Scene of Meep and Battery getting tossed out of the airlock, Crow and Uni getting caught up as well with this damaging blow to the team. Morbid and Triple-A stare out of the window into the great abyss, watching their teammates and family float off to their extra-terrestrial grave.

 **Overkill** by RIOT

Morbid and Ten going down into the vents with Triple-A and finding the entity we know as It. Would take a small break in the track for **Old Friends** before picking up again after Morbid breaks out of Mia's and Rylli's grasp and makes a run for it with Ten and Triple-A to get out of the sublevels. 

**Old Friends** by Darren Korb

Played as Morbid and Ten see their old wing-mates suspended in the air in the web of It, reminiscing about what their old lives used to be like before the SKELD. Highlights the hopelessness they're feeling as the two women know they'll receive a similar fate.

 **Take That (Bonus Track)** by RIOT

Although the tone is unfitting at a first listen, it really is in a dark way. It's to be played as Cole has her antagonist power trip and Con and Morbid get launched out with Cole. Preferably played in a faraway echo as their strife comes to a close with the visual of them floating through the great open. _"The machine has fallen"_ is in reference to Cole dying along with them, thus ending the Artemis-Sixty-Four mission.

 **Comeback** by Fox Stevenson

Epilogue. The lyrics speak for themselves.


End file.
